Concerns about financial stability in the United States and Europe are helping to push gold prices to new heights. The price of gold rose above $1,600 an ounce for the first time in New York trading on Monday. While the price fluctuated in Tuesday’s trading, some economists say even higher prices are possible. Investors traditionally […]
Debt Worries Contribute to Gold Price Increase
Asian Match Fixer Jailed as Football Scandals Spread
A Singapore man has been sentenced to two years in jail for bribing football (soccer) players in the Finnish football league, as international match-fixing scandals continue to spread and investigators point to organized crime networks based in Southeast Asia. Tuesday’s verdict in Helsinki against Wilson Raj Perumal and nine Finnish players is the latest example […]
Zimbabwe Drops Corruption Charges Against Energy Minister
Prosecutors in Zimbabwe have dropped corruption charges against Energy Minister Elton Mangoma, a top aide of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. The decision Monday comes after Mangoma was acquitted last month on other charges he bypassed governmental procedures by purchasing gasoline from a South African firm. Prosecutors said the more recent charges were dropped because they […]
Atlantis Departs International Space Station for Final Time
The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis is on its way home after undocking from the International Space Station, beginning the last leg of its final voyage — and of the 30-year U.S. shuttle program. Atlantis and its four-member crew separated from the ISS early Tuesday over New Zealand after an eight-day visit to deliver a year’s […]
Syrian Violence Leaves At Least 10 More Dead in Homs
Witnesses and anti-government activists in Syria say at least 10 people were killed on Tuesday when security forces fired on civilians in the city of Homs. They say at least three of the victims were shot and killed while attending a funeral for people killed during a security sweep on Monday. Homs has been the […]
Peruvian President-Elect Visits Cuba
Peruvian President-elect Ollanta Humala is in Cuba, his last stop on a multi-nation tour. The visit comes a little more than a week before Mr. Humala takes office on July 28. The Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma quoted Mr. Humala as saying he had come to visit a “sister” country and share an open agenda […]
Sarkozy: French Troops Killed in Afghanistan Fought Taliban’s ‘Tyranny’
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has paid tribute to seven French soldiers killed last week in Afghanistan, saying they fought in a just war against what he called the “tyranny” of the Taliban movement. Speaking at a funeral ceremony in Paris Tuesday, Mr. Sarkozy said Taliban militants imprisoned the Afghan people, oppressed women, kept children in […]
Murdoch: ‘Humbled’ by Phone-hacking Scandal but Not Personally Responsible
Media baron Rupert Murdoch says he is humbled by the phone-hacking scandal engulfing his British press operations but said he was not personally responsible for it. The 80-year-old Murdoch answered questions before a Parliament investigative committee on Tuesday alongside his son James, his chief deputy at his global media company, News Corporation. The elder Murdoch […]
Somali President Declares Famine
Somalia’s president has declared a famine in his drought-stricken country and called for more international help to deal with the crisis. While touring a displaced-persons camp in the capital, Mogadishu on Tuesday, President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said food has become so scarce that there is “in fact a famine” in his country. The president […]
Vote Nears as Possible US Default Creeps Closer
U.S. lawmakers are preparing to vote on a bill to slash the country’s spending and raise the debt limit, although this version of the legislation has little chance of resolving a high-stakes political standoff. Tuesday’s vote in the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives would cut more than $100 billion from the federal budget next year […]