Geneva : The United Nations said Monday it aimed to study the legality of the ban on the building of new minarets in Switzerland as a result of the country’s referendum on Sunday. A spokesman for the UN High Commission on Human Rights said in Geneva that experts would study whether the ban was in [...]
Washington : The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it welcomed the plan by the central bank of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to supply liquidity to the country’s banks. The move followed last week’s announcement by Dubai World, which is owned by the government of Dubai, that it would seek to delay payments on its [...]
Hamilton (New Zealand) :Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his New Zealand counterpart John Key have agreed to start formal negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) next year, a newspaper report here said. Key and Manmohan Singh met during the meeting of the heads of Commonwealth governments in Trinidad and Tobago Sunday. According to [...]
New York : Oscar winning actress Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal, who have been dating for the past two years, have split, said a source. People.com reports that no further details were given about their separation. Witherspoon, 33, and Gyllenhaal, 28, worked together in the 2007 movie “Rendition”, after which rumours started floating about them [...]
London : Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle is celebrating after her album “I Dreamed A Dream” was named the best-selling debut in British history. It was announced Sunday that the 48-year-old, who took the world by storm after appearing on reality show “Britain’s Got Talent”, is number one in Britain after selling more than 410,000 [...]
London : “Ghost Rider” actress Eva Mendes says she wanted to be a nun since childhood, but gave up her dream after realising that nuns didn’t get paid. “We grew up, not in a poor, poor family, but lower-middle class – a lot of bills and my mother was always stressing about money and stuff. [...]
Washington : The number of Americans living with diabetes will nearly double, from 23.7 million in 2009 to 44.1 million in 2034, say researchers. Consequently, spending on diabetes will almost triple, rising from $113 billion to $336 billion, even with no increase in the prevalence of obesity, researchers at the University of Chicago reported. “If [...]
Johannesburg : The 2010 FIFA World Cup is expected to inject 55 billion rands ($7.46 billion) into the South African economy, according to the Deputy Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Rejoice Mabudafhasi. Auditing firm Grant Thorn conducted the economic impact assessment for South Africa hosting the World Cup and found that not only would [...]
Berlin :The economic mood in Europe continued to brighten in November, with a key sentiment survey released Friday rising to its highest level in 14 months. The European Commission’s closely watched economic sentiment indicator for the 16-member eurozone rose from 86.1 points in October to 88.8 in November. This took the indicator to its highest [...]
Rio de Janeiro : Brazil’s unemployment rate fell to 7.5 percent in October, the lowest level of the year, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, or IBGE, said. The September unemployment rate, which was also down, had been 7.7 percent, the IBGE said Thursday. The lowest unemployment rate in the past 12 months was [...]