Tag: Mounts

CAIRO - The Middle East boiled with anger as protesters trying to topple more of the region's rulers staged fresh mass demonstrations after Friday prayers and buried the victims of crackdowns by embattled regimes. A week on from the overthrow of Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak, hundreds of thousands flooded Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square to celebrate his departure.
But elsewhere in the Middle East, a sense of anger, grief and hatred pervaded at the end of a week which has seen

WASHINGTON - A top Egyptian minister has accused the United States of imposing its "will" on its Arab ally, as the White House warned that Cairo had failed to even reach a "minimum threshold" for reform. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit lashed out in a television interview on a day when Washington took a critical line towards Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman, who is in charge of a dialogue with opposition groups.
Amid warnings by the Egyptian government of a

KARACHI - The country's total foreign and domestic debt has increased to a record mark of Rs 10.745 trillion by September 2010, while the debt to GDP ratio surged to 73.3 percent, up from 63.4 percent in September 2009.
In September 2009, the country's combined debt stood at Rs 9.30 trillion, which rose to Rs 10.745 trillion due to the government's massive borrowings to meet its budgetary deficit. The combined debt grew by Rs 445 billion between September 2009 and September 2010.

ISLAMABAD - The National Assembly was told on Friday that the overall fiscal deficit of the country during the first half of the current fiscal year (July -December 2010) has mounted to Rs 491 billion. In a written reply, the Finance Ministry also informed the house that the government from March 2008 to December 2010 had borrowed Rs 1.1 trillion from the State Bank and other scheduled banks.
"The interest paid by government on loans (borrowing from banks) during the year 2010-11

DUBLIN - Pressure mounted in Ireland on Sunday for an election to be held before the planned date of March 11, after Prime Minister Brian Cowen quit as leader of the ruling party but vowed to stay in office.
Four candidates have thrown their hats in the ring to replace Cowen as Fianna Fail leader in a vote Wednesday, but opposition lawmakers condemned the situation as "complete madness" and demanded an immediate election. The Green party, which shares power in Fianna Fail-led

ABIDJAN - Pressure ratcheted up on Sunday on Ivory Coast's defiant leader Laurent Gbagbo to quit even as his rival faced the threat of a mob attack on his internationally recognised government's headquarters.
Gbagbo's notorious "Street General", Minister for Youth Charles Ble Goude, had urged Ivorian youths to rise up after the New Year to seize control of Alassane Ouattara's headquarters in the waterfront Golf Hotel resort. But as the African Union mediator in the crisis, Kenyan

KARACHI: Pakistani stocks ended almost flat on Tuesday in dull trade as investors were cautious, awaiting clarification on the implementation of a reformed general sales tax under an IMF loan programme, dealers said. The Karachi Stock Exchange's benchmark 100-share index ended 0.08 percent, or 9.06 points, lower at 11,431.01. Turnover fell to 118.3 million shares, compared to 170.5 million shares traded on Monday.
"Investors are cautious as they are waiting to see the outcome of