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LONDON: Britain’s Finance Minister Alistair Darling on
Sunday defended his handling of the crisis at troubled bank Northern
Rock, after a highly critical report by an influential committee of
lawmakers. In an article for the News of the World weekly, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer accepted that changes were needed to
prevent a repeat in the future, but said the regulatory system was
not fundamentally flawed. The lower House of Commons Treasury Select
Committee on Saturday accused Darling of prolonging a “run” on
the bank in September by delaying an announcement guaranteeing
customer deposits.
-- AFP
BANGKOK: A train running from Bangkok to the
North on Sunday morning derailed in the central province of Nakhon
Sawan, forcing all the services along the line to a halt. According
to the Bangkok Post website, the train, bound for the northern city
of Tapan Hin, was derailed in Nakhon Sawan’s Chumsaeng station on
Sunday morning. Several trains have had to terminate their services
at Chumsaeng station since it is the only railway line connecting
the North and Bangkok. There is no report of casualties. But all
northern-bound services were suspended until further notice.
-- Xinhua
LONDON: A sixth swan has tested positive for the
H5N1 strain of bird flu at a nature reserve in southwest England,
Britain’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said
Saturday. The latest case comes after restrictions on the movement
of poultry or other captive birds in a monitoring area around the
Abbotsbury Swannery in the county of Dorset were lifted at 3 p.m.
Friday. Five other cases have been found in the same area since
January 10. The spokesman added that the development was “not
unexpected” but there was no evidence to suggest the disease had
spread to the wider wild bird population or domestic birds.
-- AFP
MOSCOW: Over 200 soldiers in the Russian Army
committed suicide last year, accounting for nearly half of the
deaths in the military, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday.
A total of 442 Russian soldiers died last year, and among them 224
committed suicide and 167 died in accidents, including 41 who lost
their lives in road accidents, according to figures released by the
ministry on its Web site. Other causes for the casualties included
hazing, which resulted in 15 deaths, accidental murder, which was
blamed for 23 deaths, and mishandling of their weapons, which was
responsible for 13 deaths.
-- Xinhua
NEW YORK: US presidential hopeful Barack Obama
won a glowing comparison to the late Democratic hero John F. Kennedy
Saturday, in an endorsement for his campaign by the revered
president’s daughter. “Sometimes it takes a while to recognize
that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves
… and imagine that together we can do great things,” Kennedy
wrote in an article in The New York Times titled “A President Like
my Father.” Obama has cast himself as the candidate on for change,
vowing to shake up what he sees as a faulty political system in
Washington.
-- AFP
BELGRADE: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon and
Slovenian President Danilo Tuerk Saturday called for the launch of
talks on global warming as soon as possible, according to reports
from the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana. The two leaders discussed
concrete forms of talks on global warming, the Slovenian national
news agency STA reported, without elaborating. Tuerk, whose country
is holding the European Union rotating presidency, said talks on
global warming must not be postponed and must result in tangible
achievements. Earlier in the month, the United States said it would
bring major economies and the United Nations together for climate
change talks on January 30 and 31 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
-- Xinhua
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