Daily News Channel
As the clock ticks down to the 81st Academy Awards Sunday, audiences could be forgiven for losing interest. On the face of it, apart from Hugh Jackman hosting, this year’s Oscars doesn’t look like it will offer many thrills. Sure, the once-yearly opportunity to poke fun at an ill-judged Oscars dress or a super-gushy acceptance speech there (gather, Kate, gather) is a welcome prospect in these dreary days of economic doom and gloom.
The world’s richest countries committed to "any further action that may prove necessary" to restore confidence in the global financial system, their finance ministers said as they wrapped up a two-day meeting in Rome. The Group of Seven finance ministers also urged countries not to close their markets to goods and services from abroad. “An open system of global trade and investment is indispensable for global prosperity,” they said in a statement at the end of their meeting Saturday.
Making his international debut at the Group of Seven meetings in Rome, new U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said swift and decisive action is needed on several levels to address the global financial crisis. “Although this crisis began in the major economies, it’s now spread to emerging markets around the world,” Geithner said
Once one of the most downtrodden and dangerous areas in New York City, Harlem is in the throes of a serious rejuvenation. And to cater to everyone moving into and hanging out in the north Manhattan neighborhood, Harlem’s culinary scene is blossoming with new restaurants and lounges
The Pakistani government acknowledged Thursday that "some part of the conspiracy" behind the November attacks in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, took place in Pakistan. The comments by Rehman Malik — the head of the Interior Ministry — was Pakistan’s first formal acknowledgment that Islamic militants trained in his country were behind the plot and was welcomed as a “positive development” by India’s foreign minister.