At least 44 people, including 23 Filipino soldiers, died Wednesday in fighting between the Philippine military and Islamic militants, the country’s armed services said on Thursday.
Philippines: Dozens die in clashes
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Opposition leader postpones rally in Iran
A Thursday ceremony to mourn the victims of Iran’s post-election protests has been postponed for a week, an opposition party Web site said. The statement was posted Wednesday evening on the Web site of presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi’s party — some hours after security forces wielding clubs and firing weapons crushed a planned demonstration at a square in the capital, Tehran
Germany considers carmaker Opel’s future
The German government plans to meet Wednesday night to discuss the future of carmaker Opel and weigh bids for the General Motors subsidiary. A spokesman for the German chancellor’s office said he did not expect a final decision on Opel to be made Wednesday. “It’s just to check the offers of the investors, then to see how we can go on,” said the spokesman, who declined to be named
Taliban seek return to peace deal in Pakistan
The Pakistani Taliban says it wants to return to a peace deal that recently collapsed, sparking an ongoing massive military operation, a spokesman said Tuesday. Taliban militants in Swat Valley have announced that they are willing to disarm if the government allows sharia, or Islamic law, to be implemented in the region, a spokesman for Taliban mediator Sufi Mohammed said.
German government moves to nationalize bank
The German government moved Thursday to nationalize the stricken Hypo Real Estate bank. It has offered €1.39 ($1.84) per share in what will be the country’s first nationalization since World War II
Zimbabwe ‘surviving on beer and cigarettes’
Zimbabwe’s new finance minister Wednesday complained that President Robert Mugabe’s government is running on taxes and duties paid on beer and cigarettes. As he presented his revised 2009 budget to parliament, Finance Minister Tendai Biti noted that “indirect taxes made up of customs and excise duty have contributed 88 percent of government revenue, which means that the government has been literally sustained by beer and cigarettes.” “This is unacceptable,” the minister added.
AIG’s Distress: Are There Enough Fingers for This Dike?
Management at AIG has calculated exactly how much money the Treasury and Fed will have access to after all of the TARP, financial stimulus, and mortgage bailout projects have been funded. The insurance company then plans to ask for whatever is left to fund its deficits so that it can stay in business, effectively making the federal government insolvent. According to CNBC, AIG is about to post another huge loss.
Chinese military tackles drought crisis
The Chinese government brought out the big guns over the weekend to help fight its worst drought in 50 years. Soldiers loaded rockets with cloud-seeding chemicals over the weekend and fired them into the sky over drought-stricken areas. The clouds opened and it rained briefly in some of the hardest hit provinces in northern and central China, but not enough end to the drought