Author: Amy Jonson
China has told the envoys of the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama that it would make “no concessions” on Tibet’s sovereignty. Top Chinese Communist Party officials concluded the ninth round of secret talks with special envoys in Beijing and issued a brief statement.
At least 24 people were killed in separate incidents in northern Mexico as the country reeled from a wave of drug-related violence. In Ciudad Juarez, gunmen drove up to a house where a high school party was in full swing and opened fire killing 14 people and wounding 17 others, the city public safety agency said.
Eight people were killed and more than 20 others are feared to have drowned after their speed boat sank in heavy seas off eastern Indonesia last week, officials said today.
Sri Lanka today sacked 12 senior military officers for being a “threat to national security” and hatching “political conspiracy” during the just-concluded Presidential Polls. Sources said President Mahinda Rajapaksa sent the officers on “compulsory retirement” for hatching a “political conspiracy” during the January 26 polls that saw incumbent Rajapaksa trouncing his former Army Chief Gen Sarath Fonseka, who was the joint opposition candidate. The sources said the officers included three major generals and two brigadiers. They were accused of interfering in politics during the polls. The defence ministry in a statement confirmed that some senior officers were “sent on compulsory…
Northern Ireland’s rival leaders said today they are close to clinching a new power-sharing agreement that would save their Catholic-Protestant coalition following a week of round-the-clock talks.
Nine suspected militants were apprehended by Pakistani security forces during search and clearance operations in the Swat valley and Waziristan tribal region, the military said today.
Australian authorities have intercepted a boat carrying 181 suspected asylum seekers off the coast of Christmas Island. “The patrol boat HMAS Larrakia, operating under the control of Border Protection Command, boarded the vessel carrying 181 passengers and four crew at approximately 7.25pm (AEDT) on Monday,” the AAP has quoted Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor as saying.
US officials say they have resumed talks with Russian negotiators in Geneva on a new nuclear arms reduction deal. The long-running talks about a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty were supposed to be finished before it expired on Dec 5. It limited the number of nuclear warheads and carrier systems each side could deploy. A spokesman for the US mission in Geneva, Michael Parmly, said today that the 50-member US delegation hopes “the remaining negotiations can be concluded quickly.” But Parmly declined to predict when the deal might be concluded. The Russian Foreign Ministry said last week…
Describing them as “propaganda” spread by officials working under the influence of the West, the Pakistani Taliban today denied reports that its chief Hakimullah Mehsud had died due to wounds sustained in a US drone attack.
It is no news to managers that the global economy has gone – and in many countries still is going through — a rough patch. The unemployment rate in the U.S. hit 10% in November, a notch down from 10.2% in October. The pressure is on more than ever to reduce costs wherever one can find them. Staffing invariably constitutes a major cost to most companies irrespective of the kind of industrial sector they are in.