No image available
/ 22 February 2009
As their market values fall far below the level of funds received by the government, top US banks have become virtually state owned.
No image available
/ 10 October 2007
Shoddy construction work, safety lapses, kickbacks, internal disputes and ballooning costs — the new United States embassy complex in Baghdad is mired in a deluge of problems, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the frontline of fire from lawmakers.
Japan offered a compromise on Monday to break an impasse over its controversial plan to lift a 20-year moratorium of commercial whale hunting, but it was flatly rejected by the other key powers. The failure to end the deadlock threw the already polarised 75-nation International Whaling Commission into disarray.
Officials from 75 nations on Monday begin talks critical to whale conservation amid pressure — notably from Japan — to lift a 20-year ban on commercial hunting of the gentle giants. The United States is reportedly under increasing pressure to compromise with Japan, which together with Norway and Iceland wants to end the moratorium.
No image available
/ 2 February 2006
North Korea’s reluctance to return to the negotiating table over its nuclear weapons programme has fuelled speculation the United States may seek to refer the Stalinist state, like Iran, to the United Nations Security Council. Christopher Hill, the chief US negotiator to the nuclear talks, said that Washington might consider other options if North Korea stayed away from the stalled negotiations.
The United States Congress held an unprecedented hearing on Thursday on India’s Dalits, once known as the ”untouchables,” highlighting what it calls a key human rights issue in the world’s largest democracy. About 200-million of India’s estimated population of a billion people are Dalits, occupying the bottom rung in Hinduism’s 2 500-year-old caste system.
The United States expressed concern on Thursday over China’s increasingly close ties with Zimbabwe at a time when the international community is trying to isolate the African state for gross human rights and other violations.