Shrugging off memories of its colonial past, Africa today stands at a precarious crossroad. On one hand, it is being aggressively pursued by international heavyweights such as the United States, China and Japan – all of which promise billions in aid and investment. But on the other hand, will Africa be able fend off the exploitative hawks circling around her?
Chinese finance minister Lou Jiwei said growth in the world’s second largest economy may dip below 7 percent in the second half of the year, signalling that Beijing may tolerate a slower pace of expansion than officials have previously indicated.
Lou, speaking yesterday at the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington, added that he is confident of achieving a growth rate of at least 7 percent this year, though 6.5 percent growth would not pose a “big problem”.
Natural disasters like hurricanes and floods have caused more than $2.4 trillion in economic and insurance losses in the past decade. Which disasters tend to be the most costly, and how successfully have residents and businesses protected themselves against serious damage?
In June, the Geneva Association, a global insurance think-tank, warned that the speed at which oceans are warming is threatening insurers’ ability to sell affordable policies in a growing number of places around the world.
Fewer babies have been born in Europe since the start of the 2008 financial crisis, ending a Europe-wide upswing in the birth rate, claims a new study.
The study, conducted by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, found that the birth rate in 28 European countries dropped as unemployment rose.
For three decades, China’s reform and opening-up policies led to unprecedented economic growth, as well as the creation of first-tier megacities particularly along the coastal regions. China has in recent years contemplated a grand plan to make urban residents of 350 million Chinese villagers. It’s a tall order and at stake is nothing short of China’s future.
When I recently visited Chongqing, the megalopolis of the southwest which already has more than 30 million inhabitants, the sprawling urban mammoth was filled with massive construction projects.
Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s on Tuesday lowered Italy’s sovereign credit rating to BBB from BBB+ and placed its outlook on negative, citing weakening prospects for the eurozone’s third largest economy as it remains stuck in its worst recession since World War 2.
The agency also lowered its GDP forecast for Italy in 2013 to -1.9 percent, compared with an earlier forecast of -1.4 percent.
The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday cut its global economic growth forecast for 2013, citing new downside risks from recession-hit Europe and a slowdown in emerging markets.
In its mid-year update to the World Economic Outlook, the IMF on Tuesday scaled back its 2013 forecast for global growth to 3.1 percent, as fast as the economy expanded last year and below the Fund’s 3.3 percent projection in April.
Intelligence-gathering post 9-11 is increasingly more complex mainly due to the changing nature of contemporary national security threats. As surveillance techniques expand and become more invasive, how do we strike the right balance between privacy and security?
Revelation of the US government’s controversial PRISM program has raised the question of how governments can build trust among its citizenry for modern intelligence-gathering methods that are highly invasive by nature.
In the world’s largest assessment of public opinion on the matter, Transparency International found that more than one in two people think corruption has worsened over the last two years while a quarter admitted to paying a bribe when accessing public services and institutions in the last year.
China’s decades-old policy of providing free coal for winter heating to residents in the north is shortening the lives of people by about 5.5 years and causing higher rates of lung cancer, heart attacks and strokes, according to a new study published on Tuesday.
The study, which appeared in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was conducted by researchers from China, Israel and America and was based on analyses of health and pollution data collected by official Chinese sources from 1981 to 2001.
