Afghan govt declares bank safe amid rush for withdrawals ( September 3rd, 2010 )
KABUL (AFP)
Afghan financial authorities and the owners of Afghanistan’s biggest bank said Thursday that Kabul Bank was in no danger of collapsing, as people across the country rushed to withdraw their money.
Finance Minister Hazrat Omar Zakhailwal called a press conference to reassure Kabul Bank customers that it was solvent, saying the administration of President Hamid [...]
Russian fires start up again: ministry ( September 3rd, 2010 )
MOSCOW (AFP)
Forest and brush fires have flared up again in southern Russia, killing two people and burning down nearly 500 houses and buildings, the emergencies ministry said Thursday.
Strong winds stoked fires that burnt 474 constructions, including 342 houses, in about 20 villages in the region of Volgograd and Saratov, a ministry spokesman told the RIA [...]
S.Korean economy grew revised 1.4 pct in Q2: central bank ( September 3rd, 2010 )
SEOUL (AFP)
South Korea’s economy grew 1.4 percent in the second quarter from three months earlier, slightly less than earlier predicted due to weaker construction investment, the central bank said Friday.
The Bank of Korea revised its gross domestic product figure for April-June from an earlier prediction of a 1.5 percent quarter-on-quarter expansion.
It said Asia’s fourth-largest economy [...]
Fuel tanker runs aground in Canadian Arctic ( September 3rd, 2010 )
OTTAWA (AFP)
A fuel tanker has run aground in Canada’s far north, carrying nine million liters (2.4 million gallons) of diesel fuel but Canadian officials have said none has spilled into the Arctic waters.
The ship struck a sandbar in the famed Northwest Passage, southwest of the town of Gjoa Haven in Canada’s Nunavut territory, on Wednesday. [...]
Olympic skating champ Lysacek to take a break ( September 3rd, 2010 )
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (AFP)
Olympic gold medallist Evan Lysacek said Thursday he won’t compete for the rest of 2010, taking a break from figure skating to focus on other interests.
“The next few months will be very busy for me,” Lysacek said. “I will be working with sponsors and charities, including Ronald McDonald House and Ralph Lauren’s [...]
Semenya not interested in what people say ( September 3rd, 2010 )
ROME (AFP)
World 800m champion Caster Semenya insisted Thursday that she is not interested in what people say about her as she steps up her preparation for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi next month.
The 19-year-old only recently returned from an 11-month absence from the sport as the furore surrounding her suspect gender dragged on.
But having been [...]
Prandelli admits to Italian worries ( September 3rd, 2010 )
FLORENCE, Italy (AFP)
Italy coach Cesare Prandelli admitted there’s an atmosphere of apprehension surrounding the national team ahead of Friday’s Euro 2012 qualifier against Estonia in Tallinn.
Italy are trying to rebuild and regroup following their disastrous World Cup defence in South Africa, in which they failed to win a game and were bundled out of the [...]
Clashes continue in Mozambique price protests ( September 3rd, 2010 )
MAPUTO (AFP)
Fresh clashes between police and demonstrators erupted in Mozambique on Thursday, the second day of violent protests over food and fuel prices that have left seven dead and hundreds injured.
Police in riot gear fired rubber bullets at a group of women protesting in a neighbourhood on the outskirts of the capital Maputo on Thursday [...]
German Bundesbank wants ‘racist’ banker fired ( September 3rd, 2010 )
FRANKFURT (AFP)
Germany’s central bank called on Thursday on the country’s president to fire one of its board members after he called immigrants unproductive and said that Jews had a special “gene.”
“The board of the Bundesbank decided unanimously today to ask the president of the republic to dismiss Dr. Thilo Sarrazin as a member of the [...]
African livelihoods at risk as species threatened: IUCN ( September 3rd, 2010 )
GENEVA (AFP)
Millions of Africans may lose a key source of livelihoods as a fifth of freshwater African species are threatened with extinction, the updated Red List of endangered species showed Thursday.
Scientists conducting a survey on 5,167 African freshwater species found that some 21 percent of species of fish, molluscs, crabs, dragonflies and aquatic plants were [...]