The stability of the global financial system is being bolstered by favourable economic conditions, but some financial market risks have crept up in recent months, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Tuesday. The IMF pointed to potential risks from the rapid decline in the United States subprime mortgage market, involving borrowers with poor credit history.
United States President George Bush said on Tuesday that he will sign a Bill to permit federal funding of research using human embryos that cannot develop into fetuses. At the same time, he said he will again reject a Bill that would clear the way for the government to pay for largely unrestricted stem-cell research on viable embryos.
Shock jock Don Imus, who has made a career out of outrageous comments, was suspended on Monday for making racist remarks by both the radio and television networks that carry his programme. CBS Radio and MSNBC suspended Imus for two weeks for saying the mostly black Rutgers University women’s basketball team looked like a bunch of ”nappy-headed hos”.
In the battle over next-generation DVDs, pornography could prove to be the XXX factor that helps determine a winner. Thirty years ago, VHS toppled Betamax in part because of the adult film industry, and now some see blue movies playing a key role again as backers of HD-DVD and Blu-ray manoeuvre to make their formats the standard.
A controversial raise for a World Bank employee who has been romantically involved with the bank’s president, Paul Wolfowitz, was not the work of the bank’s ethics committee, as originally alleged by Wolfowitz’s office, according to the watchdog group that leaked the information.
A worldwide scientific effort to catalog every living species has topped the one-million milestone. Six years into the programme, the total has reached 1 009 000, researchers report. They hope to complete the listing by 2011, reaching an expected total of about 1,75-million species.
Agence France-Presse (AFP), the global news agency based in Paris, has settled its lawsuit against Google and will allow the internet search leader to post news and photos from AFP journalists. The deal, announced on Friday, settles the copyright infringement lawsuit that AFP filed in March 2005.
Hit American Mob drama The Sopranos begins its final run of episodes this Sunday with millions expected to tune in for the climax of one of most successful series in United States television history. Speculation is rife about who will get ”whacked,” who will be ”made” and who will become a ”guest of the government”.
A 102-year-old United States woman became the oldest person yet to hit a hole-in-one during a golf outing, US media reported on Friday. Elsie McClean of Chico, California, has been playing golf since she was in her 20s and had never hit a hole-in-one before.
The World Bank’s employee organisation has questioned the promotion and pay raise of a female staffer it says is involved with bank president Paul Wolfowitz. The bank’s Staff Association demanded an explanation from Wolfowitz for what it called ”violations of staff rules in favour of a staff member closely associated with the president”.
Workers clearing out slot machines from an old casino in New Jersey got an unexpected surprise when they discovered more than 000 in loose change had fallen under the machines. The Sands casino in Atlantic City closed in November to make way for a new mega-casino.
Keith Richards may never have met a drug he didn’t like, but on Wednesday the Rolling Stones guitarist denied mixing his father’s ashes with cocaine and snorting the ghoulish concoction. Richards caused an international uproar on Tuesday when he was quoted as saying: ”The strangest thing I’ve tried to snort? My father.”
Hewlett-Packard (HP) on Wednesday showed off innovations it said were at the heart of a plan to become a major player in the multibillion-dollar computer-game market. The company has even installed new gaming features into a home coffee table dubbed "Misto", which features a built-in computer, stereo speakers and a touch-screen for a top.
Microsoft on Tuesday released a high-priority software patch intended to fix a dangerous vulnerability in its Vista and Windows operating systems. The world’s largest computer software company made the patch available as hacker groups, most of them based in China, intensified attacks crafted to exploit the weakness that Microsoft disclosed on Thursday.
United States President George Bush said on Tuesday US troops would suffer if a deadlock with Congress over war funding continues, scolding US lawmakers for going on holiday leaving business unfinished. If Congress did not approve a war funding Bill, ”… the price of that failure will be paid by our troops and their loved ones”, Bush told reporters.
The 2007 Atlantic hurricane season will be far more active than usual with 17 tropical storms, of which nine will grow into hurricanes, a noted United States forecasting team founded by William Gray said on Tuesday. The 2005 season was a record-breaker with 28 storms and 15 hurricanes.
New York authorities are fuming after the developers of video game Grand Theft Auto, in which players rob and kill their way to the next level, set the latest version of the game in the city. The fourth version of the game openly features landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building.
A Chicago woman is suing her dance partner, claiming he dropped her on her head after flipping her into the air at an office party. Lacey Hindman (22) was a victim of ”negligent dancing”, says her lawyer, David M Baum. ”I fell hard enough you could hear the impact of me hitting the floor over the sound from the jukebox,” Hindman said.
They watch MTV, surf the web, have iPods, play video games and eat at fast-food restaurants. And, no, they’re not your average United States teenager, but people over the age of 100 who shared the secrets of their longevity for a study released on Tuesday by Evercare, a health provider for the elderly in the United States.
In a defeat for the Bush administration, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a United States government agency has the power under the clean-air law to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions that spur global warming. The ruling came in one of the most important environmental cases to reach the Supreme Court in decades. It marked the first high court decision in a case involving global warming.
A new version of Adobe Systems’ Creative Suite software will go on sale this month, a launch that executives have billed as the most significant in the company’s 25-year history. The software suite includes well-known programs such as Photoshop for photo editing and Dreamweaver for web design.
Presiding over a company with a market value of -billion apparently gives Silicon Valley’s most famous billionaires a good sense of humour. Google launched their annual April Fools’ Day prank on Sunday, posting a link on the company’s home page to a site offering consumers free high-speed wireless internet through their home plumbing systems.
A Manhattan art gallery cancelled on Friday its Easter-season exhibit of a life-size chocolate sculpture depicting a naked Jesus, after an outcry by Roman Catholics. The sculpture My Sweet Lord by Cosimo Cavallaro was to have been exhibited for two hours each day next week in a street-level window of the Roger Smith Lab Gallery in Midtown Manhattan.
Serena Williams stormed back from a set down to triumph 0-6, 7-5, 6-3 over world number one Justine Henin in Miami on Saturday to claim her fourth career title in the ,9-million-dollar Sony Ericsson Open. ”It’s just not in me to give up,” said Williams, who showed a steely resolve in saving two match points in the 10th game of the second set.
United States farmers plan to cash in on the ethanol fuel boom by planting the largest area to maize in 63 years, potentially yielding a record crop and calming fears that renewable fuels will steal grain needed for food and feed, the federal government said on Friday.
A controversial plan to build the first large United States offshore wind-power farm won approval from Massachusetts authorities on Friday but still must clear federal regulatory hurdles. Cape Wind Associates has proposed constructing 130 wind turbines over 62 square kilometres in Nantucket Sound, within view of the wealthy Cape Cod resort region of Massachusetts.
So he’s faster than a speeding bullet and can leap tall buildings and all that, but there is one thing Superman cannot top — a Winkie. At least, not according to Joe Maddalena. The Hollywood memorabilia expert’s auction house on April 5 is holding one of its widely followed sales of movie and television items that could fetch an estimated -million to -million.
Discount shoppers the world over were put on guard on Friday after retail group TJX disclosed that 45,6-million credit and debit card numbers were stolen by hackers in 2005 and 2006. The company also said on Thursday about 455Â 000 customers may have had personal information compromised.
World leaders must speak out to help pull Zimbabwe out of a political and economic quagmire, former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu said on Thursday. ” … this is not the time for silent diplomacy,” the authors wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post.
Retired United States Navy medic Charlie Anderson twice thought about committing suicide: once when he feared he would be sent back to Iraq in 2004 and again last year when a friend and fellow veteran killed himself. ”I can’t say that I can’t go because we don’t do that; I also can’t go because I’m putting people in danger if I do,” he said of his first brush with suicidal thoughts.
A growth that was surgically removed from White House press secretary Tony Snow was cancerous and the cancer has spread to his liver, the White House disclosed on Tuesday. Snow, a colon-cancer survivor, underwent surgery on Monday at an undisclosed hospital to remove the growth from his abdomen region.
Bravo network’s hit show Project Runway and the independent film Quinceanera won honours at the gay media watchdog Gladd’s annual awards on Monday, but it was singer Patti LaBelle and Oscar-winning Dreamgirl Jennifer Hudson who stole the show.