HONG KONG (IHT) - Can a region like Asia - with more than $3 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, high savings rates, mostly well-capitalized banks and minimal exposure to American mortgage-backed securities - run into trouble during a global financial crisis?
The answer Friday was a resounding yes.
HELSINKI, Finland (AP) - Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari said Saturday that finding jobs for more than 1 billion young people in the Middle East and Asia will be a major challenge to peacebuilding in the next decade.
BAGHDAD (IHT) Thousands of supporters of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr marched through eastern Baghdad on Friday to mourn the killing of a Sadrist lawmaker and hear a statement from the anti-U.S. cleric blaming occupation and terrorism for the loss.
(VOA) South Africa's main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party reportedly says a split in the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party would be good for the country's democracy. The opposition party says it is ever ready to work with the splinter group from the ruling ANC to enhance democracy in South Africa. Archbishop Desmund Tutu also welcomed the potential split in the ANC. saying it would bolster the country's democracy.
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's deputy premier Najib Razak looks to have an easy path to the top job in ruling party elections in March, but an unseemly scramble for power around him could damage his efforts to rebuild the government.
BEIJING (AP) — More than 10,000 children remained hospitalized after being sickened in China's tainted milk scandal, eight of whom were in serious condition, officials said.
AMMAN (Human Rights Watch) – Jordan should end routine and widespread torture in its prisons, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Human Rights Watch called on the government to overhaul mechanisms for investigating, disciplining and prosecuting abusers, and in particular to transfer prosecutor’s investigations into prison abuse from police to civilian prosecutors.
(Mercopress) The killing of a landless peasant in Paraguay during a police eviction process in a farm belonging to a Brazilian national, decided the government on Tuesday to suspend all sales of land to foreigners.
(Christian Science Monitor) The central bank plans to buy debt directly from companies for the first time in decades.
(Jerusalem Post) Haifa Chief Rabbi She'ar Yishuv Cohen expressed his opposition to the beatification of Holocaust-era Pope Pius XII Monday during an unprecedented address before the Vatican's Synod of Bishops.
KHAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan ordered the deportation of about 50,000 Afghan refugees in an insurgency-wracked tribal region amid a major military offensive against al-Qaida and Taliban fighters.
(Mercopress) Latin American stocks plunged Monday, led by a stunning 15% intraday drop in Brazilian shares, on concern about a world recession that could devastate the region's commodities-based economies.
ANKARA, Turkey (UPI) -- Turkey staged airstrikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq as Turkish leaders asked neighboring Iraq to do more against rebels based there.
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) — A powerful earthquake struck the mountains of Central Asia, destroying a village in Kyrgyzstan and killing at least 60 people, emergency officials said Monday.
(VOA) Governments across Europe are scrambling to save failing banks Sunday, a day after European leaders called for a more coordinated response to the global financial crisis.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (IHT) A series of new battles in Sri Lanka's decades-old civil war killed 24 Tamil Tiger rebels and five soldiers, the military said Sunday.
SEVASTOPOL, UKRAINE (Houston Chronicle) — Russian tricolors flutter in the wind from Soviet-era buildings in this Black Sea port city, Russian-language billboards dot the sunlit streets, and gray warships ride at anchor in a Russian naval base.
