PYONGYANG, North Korea: North Korea staged an intimidating parade of military muscle and patriotic fervour Saturday, aimed at rallying support around leader Kim Jong-Un on the 60th anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean War. For two hours, wave after wave of goose-stepping soldiers, followed by batteries of tanks and longer-range missiles on giant mobile launchers, marched through Kim Il-Sung square in a highly orchestrated display of national solidarity and defiance. Kim Jong-Un, flanked by top military officials and Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao, took the salute from the review podium overlooking Pyongyang’s giant Kim Il-Sung square, which was turned into a sea of colour by hundreds of thousands of men and women w...
July 28, 2013 at 2:16 am | News Desk
RIO DE JANEIRO: Pope Francis on Saturday challenged priests to bring the message of the Gospel to the world’s slums as he pressed his drive in Brazil to revive a struggling Catholic faith. “It is in the favelas …that we must go to seek and serve Christ,” he told thousands of bishops, priests and seminarians from around the world gathered for a mass at Rio’s St. Sebastian Cathedral. “We cannot keep ourselves shut up in parishes, in our communities, when so many people are waiting for the Gospel,” Francis said. “In many places, the culture of exclusion, of rejection is spreading. There is no place for the elderly or for the unwanted child. There is no time for the poor person on the edge of t...
July 28, 2013 at 2:16 am | News Desk
NEW YORK: Syria’s main opposition group wanted to talk about their “desperate” need for weapons, but Western leaders they met this week preferred to discuss floundering hopes for a peace conference. (more…)
July 28, 2013 at 1:37 am | News Desk
BUDAPEST: Lewis Hamilton scorched to a surprise pole for the Hungarian Grand Prix in searing heat on Saturday, the Mercedes driver edging out defending champion and season leader Sebastian Vettel. (more…)
July 28, 2013 at 1:37 am | News Desk
BRUSSELS: The European Commission said Saturday it has reached an “amicable solution” with Beijing over imports of Chinese solar panels, a dispute that had threatened a full-blown trade war between two of the world’s largest trading powers. “We found an amicable solution in the EU-China solar panels case that will lead to a new market equilibrium at sustainable prices,” EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said in a statement. The breakthrough comes as Brussels and Beijing remain locked in a series of tit-for-tat disputes on other products ranging from steel pipes and telecoms equipment to wine and chemicals. The two sides are major trading powers, rivals and partners. Total trade last year came to nearly $55...
July 28, 2013 at 1:37 am | News Desk
ROME, Latium: Loans to businesses in recession-hit Italy dropped by 4.2 percent over the past year, with small companies in particular suffering from difficulties in obtaining credit and unpaid state bills, a new report warned Saturday. Between May 2012 and May 2013, total bank loans dropped by 41.5 billion euros ($55 billion), or 4.2 percent, small business association Confartigianato said. The situation is aggravated by the amount the state owes the private sector, which the report said amounted to 91 billion euros in 2012. Other sources say the figure is higher: banking lobby ABI said in May that arrears may have topped 100 billion euros in 2012, while big business lobby Confindustria said the debt owed to businesses may now be as much...
July 28, 2013 at 1:37 am | News Desk
championships on Saturday when she claimed the 3m springboard crown with compatriot Wang Han taking silver and Pamela Ware of Canada finishing with bronze. He had already built up a huge 20-point lead after only her second dive and she extended the margin further through the five rounds for a winning tally of 383.40, next to Wang’s 356.25 and Ware’s 350.25. This was 22-year-old He’s second gold of these world aquatic championships having won the 1m springboard title on Tuesday. Even with reigning world and Olympic Wu Minxia sitting out the individual event having claimed a record sixth gold medal in the 3m synchronised event last Saturday, China still dominated. Having finished with silver in this event at both the 2012 ...
July 28, 2013 at 1:36 am | News Desk
In our article on Spanish energy last week ("Cost del sol") we should have said that subsidies for solar energy (not for all renewable energy) rose from 193m Euro in 2007 to 3.5 billion Euro in 2012. Apologies. Business Click here for more information The Economist: Business
July 27, 2013 at 5:32 am | News Desk
THE epic struggle between two billionaires over the future of Dell has gone to another round. Michael Dell, the ailing computer-maker’s founder and biggest shareholder, has now been forced twice to postpone a vote on his proposal to buy out the firm and take it off the stockmarket, for fear that the deal’s critics, led by Carl Icahn, a veteran shareholder activist, may have enough support to scupper the plan.On July 24th, having stopped the ballot as it was about to take place, Mr Dell and Silver Lake, a private-equity firm that is backing him, said they would add $150m to their offer of $24.4 billion. But in return they want a special committee of Dell’s independent directors to change the rules of the vote, now schedu...
July 27, 2013 at 5:32 am | News Desk
Still going strong WHEN he founded Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in 1987, Morris Chang recalls, “Nobody thought we were going anywhere.” Back then the rule was that semiconductor companies both designed and made chips. TSMC was the first pure “foundry”, making chips for designers with no factories, or “fabs”, of their own. The doubts of others suited TSMC nicely. Mr Chang, at 82 still chairman and in his second stint as chief executive, says that meant it suffered no competition in its first eight years.These days the idea is more popular. Last year foundries made about half of all logic chips (the ones that carry out computations, as opposed to memory chips, a more commoditised mar...
July 27, 2013 at 5:32 am | News Desk
Pakistan Rupee Exchange Rate