Friday, February 26, 2010
International Headline News
TOP STORIES as of 0900 HKT -- 27 February, 2010
> TOP ISRAELI OFFICIAL: NO 'STABLE WORLD ORDER' WITH NUCLEAR IRAN
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Friday that Iran's
nuclear program poses a danger that extends beyond Israel. "It
is a challenge for the whole world," he said.
> 7.0 QUAKE STRIKES OFF JAPAN
A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Japan's Ryukyu Islands early
Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
> KILLER WHALES SHOWS RESUMING
The whale involved in the death of a trainer will remain an
active member of the team, and killer whale shows will resume
Saturday, company president Jim Atchison says.
> COURT SEIZES $1.4B FROM THAKSIN
Thailand's supreme court seizes more than one billion dollars
from former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra after finding he
boosted his wealth by abusing his power.
> 17 KILLED IN KABUL SUICIDE BLASTS
Deadly blasts targeting foreigners in the Afghan capital on
Friday killed at least 17 people and wounded others.
> 11 HELD IN ITALY OVER ALLEGED PKK LINKS
At least 11 people were detained in Italy on suspicion of having
terrorism ties to the outlawed PKK group, authorities said
Friday.
> 26 DEAD IN TIMBUKTU MOSQUE STAMPEDE
Twenty-six people, at least half of them children, were killed
in a stampede near a mosque in Timbuktu, Mali, according to a
journalist who witnessed the incident.
> SEVERE STORM CUTS POWER IN NEW YORK
A major winter storm will continue to wallop the Northeast on
Friday, a day after heavy snow closed schools, roads and caused
dangerous conditions.
BUSINESS
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> LLOYDS LOSSES NARROW TO $9.6B
Lloyds Banking Group has reported a £6.3bn ($9.6bn) underlying
pre-tax loss for 2009, a slight improvement on the £6.7bn
deficit recorded a year earlier.
> GOLDMAN ROLE IN GREEK CRISIS PROBED
The US central bank is looking into Goldman Sachs's role in
arranging contentious derivatives trades for Greece, which
helped the country to massage its public finances, Ben Bernanke,
chairman of the Federal Reserve, revealed on Thursday.
> GOOGLE ON THE DEFENSIVE IN EUROPE
Google on Thursday mounted a renewed defence of the way it ranks
search results, as fresh questions emerged about its practice of
sometimes manually intervening to override its automated ranking
system.
