The Pentagon is considering sending up to 7 000 more United States troops to Afghanistan next year to make up for a shortfall in contributions from Nato allies, the New York Times reported on Saturday. The paper said the push could drive US forces in Afghanistan to about 40 000.
France’s United Nations ambassador called on Zimbabwe authorities on Tuesday to publish and accept the results of elections there as the Security Council met for its first session on the Zimbabwe crisis. Diplomats have said South Africa, which currently holds the Security Council presidency, was reluctant to have it take up the issue of Zimbabwe.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon launched a new campaign on World Malaria Day on Friday, calling on the world to ensure that all of Africa has access to basic malaria control measures by the end of 2010. Ban said the African countries hardest hit by malaria have fallen behind in the fight against the disease.
A single phone call prompted United States pop star Madonna to begin charity work in Malawi, and it was while making a documentary on the African country’s one million orphans that she found a baby she decided to adopt. I Am Because We Are premiered at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday.
It’s nothing to LOL about: despite best efforts to keep school writing assignments formal, two-thirds of teens in the United States admit in a survey that emoticons and other informal styles have crept in. The survey results may give parents, teachers and others a big 🙁 — a frown to the rest of us — though the study’s authors see hope.
A time-lapse video of a man trapped in an elevator for 41 hours has become something of an internet sensation after surveillance camera footage emerged of the event, which occurred nearly a decade ago. Video of his ordeal was posted online to accompany an article in the April 21 edition of the New Yorker.
The credit crunch sent Bank of America’s quarterly profits plunging 77% after weak trading on Wall Street and in retail banking, it was announced on Monday. Bank of America, which has the largest branch network in the United States, wrote off more than -billion in trading losses and provisions against bad debts.
It was the first city in the United States to ban trans-fats from food outlets. Now New York has set another US first — from Monday, larger food chains such as McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks must display the calories of their products on menus.
Such was the mania gripping New York as the pope’s visit to the United States reached its emotional culmination that at least one busload of visitors erroneously mobbed what turned out to be a life-sized cardboard cut-out, propped in front of the Mount Carmel Catholic bookshop on 187th Street.
A New York judge ordered CNN reporter Richard Quest to undergo six months of counselling on Friday after Quest was arrested in Central Park for possession of a controlled substance, his lawyer said. The British reporter is known for his boisterous and quirky style, especially on CNN International.
Oil prices hit a record high a barrel on Friday as jitters over Nigerian oil supplies outweighed a rally in the dollar and fears of an economic slowdown in giant energy consumer China. United States light crude settled up ,83 at ,96 a barrel, before hitting a record . London Brent crude gained ,49 to ,92.
Ed Pilkington looks at the feud involving the <i>Sex and the City</i> spin-off tour businesses in New York.
Citigroup, the largest United States bank, on Friday posted its second straight quarterly loss, hurt by more than -billion in write-downs and increased reserves for credit losses. The loss totalled ,11-billion, or ,02 per share, and compared with a year-earlier profit of ,01-billion, or ,01 per share. Revenue fell 48% to ,22-billion.
The internet company Google has defied predictions of economic doom by delivering a 31% surge in quarterly profits, which appeared to vindicate the company’s claims that people will continue searching the web in a recession. Google’s first-quarter earnings jumped from -billion to ,31-billion.
Western states joined the United Nations in urging action to ensure a fair outcome from Zimbabwe’s elections, but most African countries avoided the issue at a summit of the Security Council on Wednesday. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: ”No one thinks, having seen the results of polling stations, that President [Robert] Mugabe has won.”
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday expressed grave concern at the mounting violence in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel and urged all parties to show restraint. "The secretary general is gravely concerned at the escalation of violence in Gaza and southern Israel," his press office said in a statement.
For someone who’s on top of the world, Trevor Immelman has lately spent a lot of time looking up. One day after becoming the Masters champion, Immelman was courtside at Madison Square Garden for the Boston Celtics’ 99-93 victory over the New York Knicks.
Campaigners pressing for tougher controls on the sale of guns in the United States notched up a big victory this week when Wal-Mart, the country’s largest seller of firearms, agreed to a 10-point plan designed to prevent weapons falling into the hands of criminals.
A 15-minute film of Marilyn Monroe engaging in oral sex with an unidentified man will be kept from public view by a New York businessman who has bought it for ,5-million, the broker of the deal said on Monday. Monroe is clothed and the man’s head remains out of the frame for the entire 15 minutes of the film.
Manhattan is a famously elitist place when it comes to fine dining. Who you know is often the key to securing a table at one of the hot new restaurants. Imagine the horror then, when the latest hyper-chic establishment of New York’s most happening chef opted for an egalitarian alternative.
But for a trick of fate, Chris Rock might have been a truck driver. Instead the Brooklyn boy is the "funniest man alive".
Microsoft plans on Thursday to unveil a web-based service for driving directions that uses sophisticated software to help its users avoid traffic jams, the New York Times reported. The software technology system, called Clearflow, will provide drivers with alternative information for routes that takes into account prevailing traffic patterns.
One of the world’s leading climate scientists warns on Monday that the European Union and its international partners must urgently rethink targets for cutting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because of fears they have grossly underestimated the scale of the problem.
High food prices around the world? Blame — at least in part — the investors who moved their money into commodities in the past five years, looking for better returns than they were getting from stocks and bonds. Global investment funds saw the potential for profits in commodities outstripping those from the stock market, and from 2002 started diving into oil.
Appeals by South African double amputee Oscar Pistorius and Olympic champion Justin Gatlin will be heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) this month and next, the Lausanne-based court said. Pistorius’s hearing will take place on April 29 and 30 and Gatlin’s will follow on May 28 and 29, CAS said.
Yahoo! on Monday launched a site for women between the ages of 25 and 54, calling it a key demographic underserved by current Yahoo! properties. The site, Shine, is aimed largely at giving the struggling internet company additional opportunities to sell advertising targeted to the key decision-maker in many households.
Five years after New York became one of the first major world cities to ban smoking in public places, nearly a quarter of a million people have kicked the habit and tobacco-related deaths have dropped significantly. The feared economic impact on bars and restaurants failed to materialise and cities from London to Hong Kong have since followed suit.
Oil prices leapt higher on Thursday as concerns about tight supplies were stoked by news that saboteurs had blown up an Iraqi export pipeline, traders said. New York’s main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, rose by $1,68 to close at $107,58 per barrel. In intraday trade it had hit $108,22.
Italian porn star Ilona Staller, known as ”La Cicciolina,” sued her ex-husband Jeff Koons on Wednesday, saying he failed to pay about €1,5-million (,3-million) in child support ordered by an Italian court. The couple divorced in 1994, and Staller took their son to Italy.
Disgraced American cyclist Floyd Landis will have to wait until June at the earliest for a ruling on an appeal to overturn his positive doping test at the 2006 Tour de France after a five-day hearing ended on Monday. Landis, who has denied wrongdoing, made his final appeal in closed-door sessions before the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The internet has profoundly changed journalism, but not necessarily in ways that were predicted even a few years ago, a study on the United States media industry has found. It was believed at one point that the net would democratise the media, offering many new voices, stories and perspectives.
Some pundits are calling them the HillPublicans. They are hardcore Republicans who are going against their previous political beliefs and voting for Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. The emergence of the HillPublicans now has many political observers poring over poll data and wondering what is going on.