World Bank urges poor countries to boost growth
Chief says poor countries cannot rely on high-income nations to drag them along
The World Bank has warned developing countries that they would need to be able to cope with a weak recovery in the west as it predicted a tentative and uneven recovery from the financial crisis of four years ago.
Highlighting the risks from a relapse in the euro area and from the political in-fighting in the US over the budget, the bank said poor countries needed to build up their economic strength because they could not rely on high-income countries to drag them along.
"The economic recovery remains fragile and uncertain, clouding the prospect for rapid improvement and a return to more robust growth", said World Bank president, Jim Yong Kim. "Developing countries have remained remarkably resilient thus far. But we can't wait for a return to growth in the high income countries, so we have to continue to support developing countries in making investments in infrastructure, in health, in education. This will set the scene for the stronger growth that we know they can achieve in the future."
ARMED CONFLICT
France pledges help to Mali until stability returns
Mali is to have French military support until it can restore stability, according to French President Francois Hollande. Meanwhile, Chancellor Merkel has said Germany supports the intervention, but will limit its aid.
Speaking during a visit to the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, Hollande acknowledged the possibility that French troops could remain in Mali for many months.
"We have one goal. To ensure that when we leave, when we end our intervention, Mali is safe, has legitimate authorities, an electoral process and there are no more terrorists threatening its territory," the French president told a news conference.
France launched an aerial campaign against Islamist rebels in the country's north at the request of Mali's government. The rebels' advance toward the capital, Bamako, had prompted urgent pleas for military intervention.
Unrest and Political UncertaintyPakistan Tumbles into Chaos
By Hasnain Kazim in Islamabad, Pakistan
The contrast between the images couldn't be any more striking. In Islamabad, people could be seen celebrating in front of the parliament building. Men patted each other on the shoulder and hopped around in circles. Women waved green flags emblazoned with the white crescent symbol and sang. "Nizam Badlo!" they call out repeatedly. "Change the System!" They had convened to celebrate Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, a government critic and their self-proclaimed revolutionary leader, and the decision made by the country's Supreme Court to allow the arrest of Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on suspicion of corruption and nepotism.
Australia's mutant vomiting bug spreads misery around the world
January 16, 2013 - 11:20AM
A new strain of a vomiting bug first found in Australia has killed nursing home residents from California to Japan, spoiled luxury cruises and may have sickened more than 1 million Britons so far in its global sweep.
The new norovirus, identified in Sydney last March, caused the worst bout of gastroenteritis in a decade in Victoria last year. Now health-care facilities in the Northern Hemisphere have been warned to prepare for a "severe" epidemic this winter, researchers from eight countries have said in a report this month.
Haitians heap the nation's burdens on a half-ton cross
In a grassroots initiative that is bringing Haitians together across the country, men, women, and children are carrying a half-ton piece of wood roped together like a cross for some 435 miles
Thousands of people dancing in the streets of Haiti’s capital is not that unusual, especially leading up to Carnival. But two days after a somber gathering commemorating the third anniversary of the 2010 earthquake, last night's bumping, grinding, dancing, and singing was far more organic and, some say, purely Haitian than the minimal weekend memorial.
Last night's crowd was gathered to greet a Haitian pied piper parade of sorts, for all ages, sizes, and strengths. From the southern tip of the country to the far northeast, some 435 miles, Haitians are relaying a half-ton piece of wood roped together like a cross.
The locals who dreamed up this quirky initiative refer to it as Kita Nago. Nago is a dance. Kita doesn’t mean anything, but the Creole phrase yon pa kita, yon pa nago means, loosely translated, "I’m not going anywhere, I’m staying right here."
CIA sisterhood: One spy cared for her dying colleague, an agency pioneer
By ,
Inside the Reston nursing home, the 80-year-old CIA pioneer was dying of cancer. Her best friend and former colleague sat in a nearby chair and tended to her needs.
Sandy Grimes, who’d once hunted a notorious Cold War mole with Jeanne Vertefeuille, adjusted her friend’s pillow. She helped her count past 20. She fed Vertefeuille meals, making sure to serve dessert first and that the pudding came with whipped cream. Grimes also read her a stream of get-well cards, many from colleagues at the CIA. There, the women made history. There, they helped bring down one of Langley’s most elusive traitors,Aldrich “Rick” Ames.
“I felt an obligation to be there with her,” recalled Grimes, 67, of Great Falls. “I can’t imagine not doing it. I was the one Jeanne would accept. I owed it to her as a friend.”
Even before they helped identify the CIA officer-turned-Soviet-spy in the early 1990s, Vertefeuille (pronounced VER-teh-fay) and Grimes forged a bond.
No comments:
Post a Comment