Zoellick slams ‘sugar high’ stimulus plans

The global economy will shrink up to 2 percent, and rapidly approved stimulus plans worldwide could spark another crash in financial markets, World Bank President Bob Zoellick projected at a forum in Belgium Saturday. Zoellick said the World Bank, an international institution that offers aid to developing nations, projects a global economic decline between 1 percent and 2 percent

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Six dead in Afghan car bomb attack

Five Afghan civilians and one police officer died Saturday in a car bomb attack targeting a police checkpoint in the country’s northeastern region, the NATO command reported. A billion gallons of ash sludge, laced with toxic materials, spilled from a holding pond and fouled 300 acres and two rivers near the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant on December 22. Forty homes were affected, roads were ruined, and residents were left wondering whether their water would ever be safe to drink.

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European leaders agree to extra stimulus money

European leaders have agreed to make $100 billion available to the International Monetary Fund and ?50 billion ($68 billion) to eastern European countries, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Friday. The lending means Europe has “laid the foundations” for the G-20 summit in London in two weeks, Brown told a news conference in Brussels after a European Council summit

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IMF: Global economy to shrink for first time in 60 years

The global economic slowdown is so severe that the worldwide economy will contract for the first time in 60 years, the International Monetary Fund says. The total of goods and services produced around the world is projected to slump by 1 percent in 2009, compared with a 3.2 percent growth rate the year before. Leading the slump will be the world’s most developed economies, including the United States, Europe and Japan

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Families find little comfort at Afghan children’s hospital

Babies lie side by side in warming beds or sprawled on blankets atop crude wooden tables. Children with wounds and broken bones are carried in by their parents to wait on stiff plastic chairs. Outside, coughing youngsters squat on the pavement with their anxious families, waiting for care

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Pope preaches to thousands at Cameroon mass

Tens of thousands of people packed a soccer stadium in Cameroon Thursday, including President Paul Biya and his wife, for the first large-scale mass of Pope Benedict XVI’s first visit to Africa. Africa is the last continent that Benedict had left to visit, and one he could not avoid, said David Gibson, a biographer of the pope

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San Diego: The new super-yacht capital?

It carries the nickname "America’s Finest City," and right now it appears San Diego is living up to the hype. Though the international financial crisis has precipitated economic woe across the United States, developments in San Diego’s super-yacht industry don’t appear to be slowing. Fifth Avenue Landing, a stylish new facility promising the ultimate docking experience for super-yachts up to 300 feet long, has just opened in city’s downtown area

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World Bank downgrades China’s growth forecast

The World Bank cut China’s economic growth forecast in 2009 to 6.5 percent Wednesday, down a full percentage point from November’s projection. Despite the downgrade, “China is a relative bright spot in an otherwise gloomy global economy,” said the World Bank’s David Dollar.

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