The United States Senate on Friday confirmed air force General Michael Hayden as the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, which has been in turmoil over intelligence failures leading up to the September 11 attacks and the 2003 Iraq invasion.
The White House on Wednesday vowed there would be no direct negotiations with Iran unless it suspends its uranium-enrichment programme. ”Iran has to take that fundamental step when it comes to enriching and reprocessing uranium,” White House spokesperson Tony Snow told reporters.
China’s ambassador portrayed his country on Tuesday as a benign force in Africa that dispatches doctors and teachers to the continent, opens trade opportunities and steers clear of political interference. Zhao Wenzhong said China-Africa trade leaped from -billion in 2000 to -billion last year.
United States authorities found 000 stuffed in a freezer at the home of a US lawmaker under federal investigation for corruption and shady deals in West Africa, court documents showed on Monday. Democratic representative William Jefferson was involved in bribery schemes and suspect business deals in Nigeria and Ghana, according to an FBI affidavit.
A new report released on Thursday disputes scientists’ claims that bones of a dwarf human discovered on an Indonesian island are those of an entirely new human species. The 18 000-year-old bones found on Flores Island in 2003 were given the scientific name Homo floresiensis, and the nickname ”Hobbit” after the diminutive figures in JRR Tolkien’s novel.
United States state governments are once again doing battle with the tobacco industry. This time it’s little cigars. Attorneys general from 39 states and Guam say these small cigars are really just brown cigarettes and ought to be identified as such.
Former United States vice-president Al Gore debuted his global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, on Wednesday night to a Washington audience that included members of Congress and Queen Noor of Jordan.
A vaccine that blocks infection by four types of human papillomavirus could cut global deaths from cervical cancer by more than two-thirds, its manufacturer said in seeking federal approval. Merck wants Food and Drug Administration approval for its Gardasil vaccine against the two of those four types of human papillomavirus, or HPV, believed responsible for about 70% of cervical cancer cases.
It is good to be president, not the least because it inspires rock stars and others to buy you presents like 800 suits, poker sets, chain saws and 500 bikes. President George Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney on Monday released the financial disclosure forms they are required by law to file every year.
American oil companies stand to gain in competing for access to oil reserves in Libya by the restoration of normal diplomatic relations and the removal of Moammar Gadaffi’s regime from a United States list of terrorism sponsors. The diplomacy that led to the renewal of ties with the North African country, which were severed in 1980, could also serve as an example to Iran.
The United States is to renew full diplomatic ties with Libya and take it off a list of states that back terrorism, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday. Rice called the resumption of relations the ”tangible results” of Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi’s decision in 2003 to renounce terrorism.
The United States Supreme Court on Monday delivered a victory to internet giant eBay in a closely watched case seen as a test for high-tech disputes over patent infringement. The court’s unanimous ruling does not exonerate eBay in the patent dispute with a company called MercExchange.
Faced with fewer buyers and soaring oil prices, General Motors has decided after a 14-year run to drive its gargantuan Hummer "Alpha" 4X4 into the sunset and shutter its production. GM announced on Friday that production of the giant 4X4 known as the "H1", based on a vehicle designed for the United States army, will cease in June.
President George Bush, in a nationally-televised speech on Monday, is expected to propose tougher immigration-enforcement measures along the United States-Mexico border, including the use of additional troops, US media reported on Friday. The New York Times reported that the president is likely to discuss the deployment of national-guard troops.
Critics complain the Bush administration once again dropped the ball by failing to cite China for a currency system they see as a prime culprit in the loss of millions of United States manufacturing jobs. The administration said in a report to Congress on Wednesday that China moves too slowly to reform its currency system, but isn’t technically a currency manipulator.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday that Iran would face "isolation" if it did not establish a nuclear programme that meets international standards. Speaking after talks with Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Rice also stressed that Iran faced a United Nations Security Council resolution over its nuclear programme.
President George Bush announced on Monday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will address the United Nations Security Council, seeking a rapid deployment of peacekeepers to Sudan. Bush said Rice would address the Security Council on Tuesday, following last week’s peace agreement between the government and rebels.
The United Nations Security Council met behind closed doors this week to discuss a draft resolution on Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons programme as Tehran announced it had successfully enriched uranium to a new level.
About 694-million people worldwide over age 15 are now using the internet, about 14% of the total population in this age group, according to a survey released on Thursday. The report by research firm comScore Networks claims to be ”the first true estimate of global online audience size and behaviour” using consistent methodology.
Counseling and a drug that blocks the brain’s pleasure receptors can effectively treat alcoholism without the expense of checking into specialised clinics, said a study released on Tuesday. ”Medical care works, and alcoholics don’t need to check into a specialty treatment programme to get it,” said Robert Swift, an author of the report.
A United States Congress-mandated commission called on the government to take "aggressive action" against Saudi Arabia for alleged religious-freedom violations and warned that religious rights were under threat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Three months after succeeding the famously discreet Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve chairperson Ben Bernanke has been dealt a painful lesson in the cost of careless talk. A private conversation involving the new Fed chief at Saturday’s annual dinner of the White House Correspondents’ Association found its way out into public this week.
North Korea loses at least -million each week it stays away from multilateral talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons drive, a top United States negotiator said on Tuesday. North Korea stood to gain that amount of money in energy aid alone in return for abandoning its nuclear weapons under an agreement reached by the negotiating parties.
United States President George Bush told Sudan’s president in ”very clear” terms that his government must redouble efforts to make a deal with rebels at peace talks, the White House said on Tuesday. In a phone call on Monday with President Omar al-Beshir, Bush urged the Sudanese leader to send his vice-president back to the peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria.
Casting off an end-of-year lethargy, the United States economy bounded ahead in the opening quarter of this year at a 4,8% pace, the fastest pace of growth in two-and-a-half years. The increase in the gross domestic product marks a vast improvement from the feeble 1,7% annual rate registered in the final quarter of 2005.
A senior United States politician assailed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday for calling Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema a ”good friend” despite criticism of his human rights record. Democratic Senator Carl Levin said Rice sent the message that the United States was more interested in oil than human rights.
Hollywood star George Clooney pleaded on Thursday for a more vigorous United States effort to end what he called ”the first genocide of the 21st century” in Sudan’s war-devastated Darfur region. The Oscar-winning actor and director urged broad participation at demonstrations to be held on Sunday in Washington, San Francisco and several other US cities.
The World Bank said on Thursday it has clinched an interim deal with Chad to unblock frozen oil revenues owed to the impoverished African country. The global lender said the Chadian government has promised to adopt a new Budget law that will reserve 70% of its oil proceeds for poverty reduction.
United States President George W Bush, facing a summer of revolt from a nation that believes fiercely in its right to affordable petrol, on Tuesday unveiled plans to try to stop a rapid rise in prices at the pump. In a speech to the Renewable Fuels Association in Washington, Bush acknowledged that the high prices were hurting ordinary Americans as the holiday season approaches.
United States President George Bush on Wednesday introduced conservative talk-show host Tony Snow as his new chief spokesperson in the latest shake-up of the struggling White House. ”I’m confident that Tony Snow will make an outstanding addition to this White House team,” Bush said.
Skyrocketing energy prices will figure prominently on the agenda of the world’s seven largest economic powers when they gather on Friday. Discussions on worldwide economic matters will carry over into the weekend meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
The global economy, which has coped amazingly well with fallout from natural disasters and lofty energy prices, is expected to pick up a little more speed in 2006 and log another year of brisk growth. Still, risks remain, the International Monetary Fund indicates in its latest World Economic Outlook, released on Wednesday.