Iranian officials have agreed to loan Pakistan $500 million to complete a controversial cross-border pipeline project that can transport over 21.5 million cubic metres of gas daily to their neighbours by 2014, reported Pakistani newspaper Express Tribune on Tuesday, ahead of president Asif Ali Zardari’s visit to Tehran later this week.
The equality movement has made tremendous gains in the last decades and women too can now enjoy greater freedom and access to education and employment. So why is there a persistent gender pay gap that just won’t go away?
It is the year 2012 and almost four years after the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was signed into law. Surely, the gender wage gap has been narrowed, right? Wrong.
The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday charged the Chinese affiliates of the so-called “Big Four” accounting firms for allegedly failing to cooperate and provide audit data related to nine Chinese firms that are currently investigated for potential accounting fraud.
Thousands of vehicles – including some 4,000 trucks – were caught in a three-day traffic jam along the M10 highway from Moscow to St. Petersburg over the weekend, reported Reuters, after a heavy snowstorm paralysed traffic conditions for a stretch of up to 200km.
Saudi Arabia “needs” to invest over 500 billion riyals ($133 billion) into new energy projects over the next ten years if the nation is to meet its growing power demand, said a government official on Sunday, after intermittent power cuts had occurred in the summer on the back of increased air-conditioning usage.
Who is the richest person on earth? You’ll be surprised to know that it isn’t Warren Buffett or Bill Gates.
In fact, the richest person on this planet is Carlos Slim Helu from Mexico, the telecom tycoon whose $69 billion fortune puts him ahead of Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, who comes in at second place with a net worth of $61 billion.
December is historically a strong month for markets. The S&P 500 has risen 16 times in the past 20 years during the month. However, negotiations to avert the fiscal cliff continue to add uncertainty to markets, particularly as talks reach a stalemate over tax hikes. Meanwhile in Europe, eurozone finance ministers meet to make a final decision on the next trance of aid for Greece.
Monday, December 3
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for the first time on Sunday, hinted that her government may ultimately accept a write-off of Greek debt in the future; but stated that Athens first had to fulfil their fiscal targets, including posting a budget surplus by 2014/2015.
Palestine’s successful bid to be recognised as a “non-member observer state” in the United Nations last Thursday has come at a cost; after the Israeli government announced on Sunday that it would be withholding $118 million in tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority this month, in response to the “Palestinian provocation.”
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said on Friday that the eurozone economy has not yet emerged from the crisis but expressed confidence that a recovery will “certainly begin in the second half of 2013.”
Speaking at an interview with French radio Europe 1, Draghi also defended the European Central Bank’s strategy to preserve the euro’s stability, referring to the “unconventional means” the Bank had earlier pledged to use.
