Tag: Crisis

KABUL - Afghan President Hamid Karzai blamed the international community on Monday for playing a part in a huge corruption scandal at the country's biggest lender, and called for a traditional "jirga" summit to review strategic ties with the United States.
The gathering of hundreds of community leaders should be held in around two or three months, he said, adding that Afghanistan would not be dominated by the bigger power.
"The first condition of this strategic partnership

LAHORE - The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Punjab is in the midst of a severe financial crisis after completely exhausting its annual financial allocation and is having to borrow hefty sums from NAB Balochistan for its everyday expenditures and employees' salaries.
The financial crisis has come mostly because of policies adopted by the top brass of NAB Punjab who, in spite of the bureau being short of funds, have recently raised the salaries of prosecutors employed on

TOKYO - China said on Friday it was concerned at Japan pump ing radioactive water into the sea from its crippled nuclear power plant, reflecting growing international unease at the month-long crisis triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami.
China will "closely" monitor Japan's actions to regain control of the plant, the foreign ministry said, demanding Tokyo provide swift and accurate information on the crisis which began on March 11 when a magnitude 9 earthquake and

PARIS - The crisis in Ivory Coast could be resolved in a matter of hours, French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet said on Tuesday.
"We are in a situation where everything could be resolved in the next few hours," Longuet told a news conference, after meeting with his German counterpart Thomas de Maiziere.

MOHALI - Shahid Afridi arrived for the World Cup with a "rag-tag bunch of players" and in the space of six short weeks turned them into a strong Pakistan outfit. India beat Pakistan in the semi-finals to dash their hopes of a second title but Afridi's men can return home with their heads held high after putting on a great show in the sub-continent despite their tumultuous run-up to the showpiece event.
Unable to play international matches at home and tainted by a spot-fixing

KUWAIT CITY - Kuwait's government resigned on Thursday sparking a fresh crisis in an oil-rich Gulf state prone to political volatility, as opposition MPs stepped up calls for a change of prime minister.
The development, unrelated to revolts in the Arab world, marked the sixth cabinet led by Prime Minister Nasser Mohammed al-Ahmad Al-Sabah to resign since he was named five years ago. Three parliaments have been dissolved in the emirate over the same period.
"The Kuwaiti

HONG KONG - The world's highest hotel opened its doors in Hong Kong on Tuesday, housed in the city's tallest skyscraper and offering unrivalled panoramic views of the world famous Victoria Harbour.
Towering some 490 metres (1,600 feet) above the bustling, chaotic streets of the Southern Chinese city, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel is making a grand comeback after temporarily closing in 2008.
Visitors peered out of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the 118th floor of the International

MANAMA - Bahrain's foreign minister said on Monday it was "completely untrue" that Kuwait would mediate to resolve the country's political crisis, a reaction leading opposition group Wefaq said augured badly for any resolution. Shi'ite muslim Wefaq said on Sunday it accepted an offer by Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah to mediate between Bahrain's Sunni al-Khalifa ruling family and opposition groups. Earlier this month, Bahrain's rulers imposed martial law in the Gulf Arab

LISBON - Portugal's president consulted political leaders on Friday on whether to call a snap election -- as most parties want -- after the Socialist prime minister resigned. The crisis could force Portugal to request a bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund after months of desperate struggle to avoid one, becoming the third euro zone country to seek aid, after Greece and Ireland.
The crisis, which was sparked by parliament's rejection on Wednesday of

VIENNA - Japan's nuclear situation is still very serious but there is no doubt the country will "effectively overcome" the crisis, the head of the UN atomic agency said on Monday.
Yukiya Amano, addressing an emergency meeting of the Vienna-based agency's 35-nation governing board, said he was starting to see some positive developments regarding the stricken nuclear power plant, 240 km north of Tokyo. "The crisis has still not been resolved and the situation at the Fukushima

LOS ANGELES - US actress Sandra Bullock has donated $1 million to help victims of Japan's earthquake and tsunami crisis, the latest celebrity to pledge aid, the American Red Cross said Thursday. The contribution, described as from Bullock and her family, came after the US aid agency announced it had given $10 million to the Japanese Red Cross to help after last Friday's quake.
"The American Red Cross is extremely grateful for this generous support from Sandra Bullock and her

KARACHI - Following a waning trend in the past two weeks, the country's foreign exchange reserves have hit a record high of $17.608 billion in the week ending on March 12. Figures from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reveal that, during the week under review, the country's total liquid foreign reserves increased by $238 million or 1.37 percent compared to $17.370 billion in the previous week. Current reserves of over $17.608 billion raised 0.1 percent or $19 million compared to the

LONDON - Oil prices rose by over $2.0, with Brent topping $111 a barrel and rebounding from three-week lows a day earlier as escalating violence in the Middle East renewed fears about oil supply in the region. After an earlier crackdown on protesters in Bahrain resulted in at least four deaths according to hospital sources, violent clashes erupted in Yemen and Syria.
Iran chimed in with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad quoted by state television condemning Bahrain's crackdown on

BEIJING - China's vast nuclear push is likely to slow after the government ordered a safety crackdown on Wednesday in the aftermath of Japan's nuclear crisis. The announcement by the State Council, or cabinet, was the clearest sign yet that the crisis at a quake-ravaged nuclear complex in northeast Japan could affect China's ambitious nuclear expansion, by far the world's largest.
But at least one expert said the measures were unlikely to stop China's expansion of nuclear power.

KARACHI - The recent earthquake and tsunami has, whereas, shaken the high-tech Japanese economy, analysts view the natural calamity as a blessing in disguise for the crises-hit economy of Pakistan. However, analysts say Pakistan's stock market, like most of its Asian competitors that tumbled from one to three percent on Tuesday, might not remain unaffected from the devastating tsunami in Japan.
In aftermath of the Japanese disaster, analysts see the flaring commodity prices in

SOMA - High levels of radiation leaked from a crippled nuclear plant in tsunami-ravaged northeastern Japan after a third reactor was rocked by an explosion Tuesday and a fourth caught fire in a dramatic escalation of the 4-day-old catastrophe. The government warned 140,000 people nearby to stay indoors to avoid exposure.
Tokyo also reported slightly elevated radiation levels, but officials said the increase was too small to threaten the 39 million people in and around the

ABU DHABI - Surging global prices of basic foodstuffs raise the risk that the food crisis of 2007-2008 in developing countries will be repeated, the head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization said on Monday. A jump in oil prices and the fast recent drawdown in global stocks of cereals could herald a supply crisis, FAO Director General Jacques Diouf told Reuters in an interview during a visit to the United Arab Emirates. "The high prices raise concern and we've been quickly