A senior official of the United States Treasury has described as unduly pessimistic the latest economic forecast by the International Monetary Fund, which is predicting that the US economy will slip into mild recession this year. The official David McCormick said he remained confident in the long-term resilience of the US and global economies. The IMF's Chief Economist Simon Johnson said that if the financial sector remains stable, the US will be able to weather the down-turning growth.
"Now we call it a mild contraction, it means a definite contraction now, but we weren't being quite clear about that. It is thought to be mild ,though, and we do think there's some resilience to the US economy, we do think that the exports remain strong, we do think the house price decline will be over by the end of this year, and we think the excess inventory there will be worked off. So there are some reasons to think this, you know, this is a strong large diverse economy that will be able to work through these problems."
The United States carrier American Airlines has canceled more than 1,000 flights today, so that mechanics can check whether its McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft comply with safety standards. James Coomarasamy reports from Washington. (wwW.hxen.net)
American Airlines has been forced to cancel nearly half of its flights on a day of frustration for travelers and embarrassment for the company. It's the second time in two weeks the US carrier has set to ground its fleet of MD-80 planes to allow inspectors to check whether their wire bundling met Federal safety standards. The Federal aviation authority, the FAA, found that the checks conducted the first-time around were not rigorous enough.
Zambia has called an emergence meeting of the Southern African Development Community this weekend to discuss Zimbabwe's post-election impasse. The announcement marks the first move by Zimbabwe's neighbors to intervene after the elections 11 days ago. Peter Biles reports.(wWw.hxen.net)
Until now, Southern African leaders have said very little about Zimbabwe, but impatience is growing. The leader of South Africa's governing African National Congress Jacob Zuma says this has become an international issue and Zimbabwe and the rest of the world shouldn't be kept in suspense. So Zambia, which currently chairs the 14-member Southern African Development Community, is now convening a heads-of-state meeting in Lusaka. It's not yet clear if President Robert Mugabe will attend.
World News from the BBC.
The top four military commanders in Ecuador have resigned after President Rafael Correa accused the military of helping the United States and Colombia in operations against FARC guerrillas. Jeremy McDermott reports.
The crisis is a result of statement by President Rafael Correa that the intelligence services be investigated for disloyalty with Mr. Correa insisting that they were infiltrated and even controlled by the CIA. Rumbling of discontent with the military began after the Colombian army bombed a rebel encampment just within Ecuador. Along with more than 20 Colombian guerrillas, an Ecuadorian was killed in the bombardment. It was later revealed that the Ecuadorian has been under investigation by the intelligence services for links to Colombia's rebels, but the President Correa had not been informed.
The President of Haiti, Rene Preval, has called for an end to a recent wave of protests over rising food prices. In his first speech since the unrest began, Mr. Preval told Haitians that high food prices were a global phenomenon. He also blamed the policies of previous governments for the crisis. Reports say United Nations peacekeepers in the capital Port-Au-Prince were forced to use tear gas to break up further protests.
At least two Israeli civilians have been killed in a raid into Southern Israel by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army says at least four gunmen were involved and soldiers shot dead two of them. Later the Israelis say they carried out an air attack on Gaza, hitting a car belonging to members of the armed groups behind the attack. (www.hxen.net)
A senior al-Qaeda figure Abu Obeida al-Masri, who is believed to have played a key role in planning major attacks on the West, is reported to have died. Mr. al-Masri was thought to be the head of external operations for al-Qaeda's core leadership hiding out in Pakistan's tribal areas. US officials said he's thought to have died of natural causes.
BBC News.
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