Daily News Channel
A member of Congress Friday called on the State Department to stop doing business with Xe, the North Carolina-based security company formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Illinois, asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton whether the State Department had just signed a new $20 million dollar contract with Xe for Iraq, saying she is “very concerned” that the State Department may be signing new security contracts with Xe, both in Iraq and Afghanistan.
China can expect 7.2 percent growth in 2009, according to the World Bank, which says the country’s fiscal policies in the face of a global financial slowdown have kept the Chinese economy "growing respectably." The 7.2 percent projection for the nation’s gross domestic product — a basic measure of an economy’s performance — follows China’s November announcement that it would inject $585 billion (4 trillion yuan) into its economy to offset declines in industrial and export growth. The projection is also an upward revision of the 6.5 percent growth forecast by the World Bank in March, a forecast that was a full percentage point down from an earlier November projection. “China can have the confidence to focus on forward-looking policies and structural reforms,” said senior economist Louis Kuijs, the main author of the World Bank’s China Quarterly Update, released on Thursday.
Launched in 1995, the Airbus A330-200 is the newest member of the European aircraft manufacturer’s twinjet family. With a range of 12,500 km (6,750 nautical miles) and the capacity to carry 253 passengers, the A330-200 is extremely well-regarded as a medium to long-range airliner. There are 600 currently in service with 82 airlines, including Air France, worldwide
A white tiger mauled a zookeeper to death at a New Zealand wildlife park Wednesday as a group of tourists watched in horror, police say. The attack took place at the Zion Wildlife Gardens near Whangarei, about three hours north of Auckland. Two zookeepers had gone in to clean an enclosure at the park, when one of two white tigers inside lunged at a keeper, said Sarah Kennett, spokeswoman for Northland Police.