IGIHE

Tag: InternationalNews

  • Bush Senior Released from Hospital

    {{Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush was released from a Houston hospital on Monday after more than seven weeks of treatment for bronchitis and related ailments, according to a statement issued by a family spokesman.}}

    “Mr. Bush has improved to the point that he will not need any special medication when he goes home, but he will continue physical therapy,” Dr. Amy Mynderse, the doctor in charge of Bush’s care, said in the statement, issued by Bush spokesman Jim McGrath.

    Bush said in the statement that he was grateful to the “wonderful” doctors and nurses who took care of him.

    “Let me add just how touched we were by the many get-well messages we received from our friends and fellow Americans,” the former president said.

    “Your prayers and good wishes helped more than you know, and as I head home my only concern is that I will not be able to thank each of you for your kind words.”

    The 41st U.S. president, 88, was admitted to Methodist Hospital on November 23 for bronchitis and then transferred to intensive care in December after coming down with a persistent fever and other complications. He was moved to a regular patient room after his condition improved last month.

    A spokesman for President Barack Obama – the nation’s 44th president – posted on Twitter Monday that Bush’s discharge was “great news.”

    {Wirestory}

  • ‘Sorry I Doped’–Armstrong Says

    {{Lance Armstrong today admitted to Oprah Winfrey that he used performance enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France.}}

    Reports indicate that Armstrong is talking with authorities about paying back some of the US Postal Service money from sponsoring his team.

    He is also talking to authorities about confessing and naming names, giving up others involved in illegal doping.

    This could result in a reduction of his lifetime ban, according to the source, if Armstrong provides substantial and meaningful information.

    Armstrong made the admission in what sources describe as an emotional interview with Winfrey to air on “Oprah’s Next Chapter” on Jan. 17.

    The 90-minute interview at his home in Austin, Texas, was Armstrong’s first since officials stripped him of his world cycling titles in response to doping allegations.

  • New Corvette Leaves Many Sharply Divided

    {{There’s few greater challenges in the automotive realm than redesigning an iconic car with a devoted following.

    Play it too safe, and only the die-hards keep buying; go too far, and the enthusiasts can feel alienated without a new audience developing. }}

    There’s no more iconic American car than the Corvette, and the 2014 Corvette Stingray unveiled Sunday has already sharply divided fans around the world.

    One person’s affordable supercar is another’s reminder of the Pontiac Aztek.

    That Corvette fans themselves would raise the name of the Aztek, the ugliest vehicle ever developed by General Motors, demonstrates the passions involved with the Corvette.

    In 60 years, the car has only been redesigned seven times, and the 196os editions ranks as the most beautiful American sports car ever created.

    Chevy designers knew this going in; GM design chief Ed Wellburn commissioned 300 potential designs for the car, and vowed that he wouldn’t let it use the historic Stingray name if it wasn’t worthy.

    Every new generation of the Corvette sparks a debate among the faithful, and the so-called C7 has done so more than ever before.

    On the most popular Corvette Forum, the debate over the direction chosen by GM began as soon as the first photos appeared, and hasn’t stopped since. One fan summed up the case for the new car thusly:

    The new Corvette is awesome, in looks and performance. The exterior is nicely evolved, and the interior is revolutionary, especially the Lamborghini inspired optional track seats. Love the extreme chopped rear end and hood scoop. Side profile is nicely carved…All parameters have been incrementally and necessarily increased to maintain the car’s promise of supercar performance at a Chevy price. Resurrection of the Stingray moniker is a nice touch. This car delivers.

    But the critics emerged quickly.

    While the front-end treatment received some mild criticism, the rework of the rear which removed the traditional Corvette round taillamps in favor of vent-surrounded polygons, sharp creases and four exhaust pipes led some Vette owners to consider pitchfork and fire, accusing GM designers of slighting its heritage by making the Corvette look like a lowly Camaro:

    {wirestory}

  • Toyota is Most Sold Car in the World

    {{US based Car maker General Motors lost the global sales crown once again to Toyota in 2012 as its sales grew just 2.9% to 9.2 million vehicles, the US auto giant said Monday.}}

    GM, which briefly regained the crown after Toyota’s supplies were shattered by the 2011 Japanese quake and tsunami, nonetheless remains at number two worldwide.

    German rival Volkswagen, which aspires to be the world’s biggest automaker by 2018, reported an 11 percent increase in 2012 sales to 9.07 million on Sunday.

    Toyota has forecast its 2012 sales will jump 22% to 9.7 million vehicles.
    GM said its share of the global auto market fell 0.4 points to 11.9 %.

    GM’s international operations — Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East — posted the biggest gains, with sales up 10.1% at 3.6 million while its share was flat at 9.5 %.

    Sales fell 8.2% in Europe to 1.6 million vehicles, while GM’s share narrowed by 0.2 points to 8.5%.

    North American sales rose 3.2% to just over three million, though GM’s share of its home market fell 1.5 points to 16.9%.

    Sales in South America shrank 1.9% to just over a million vehicles, while GM’s share of the region fell 0.8 points to 18 %.

  • Venezuela Govt says Hugo Chavez Health Positive

    {{The health of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has evolved in a “favourable” way in recent days, though he still requires treatment for respiratory failure, communications minister Ernesto Villegas said.}}

    “Despite his delicate health state since his complex surgery on December 11, his general health has improved in recent days and the president is in strict compliance with his medical treatment,” Villegas said in a statement broadcast on radio and television on Sunday.

    Former vice president Elias Jaua, however, said earlier on Sunday that Chavez was “fighting for his life” and that “the situation is complex and delicate, but it is true that Hugo Chavez has fought and is fighting for his life.”

    Supporters of the ailing president held rallies across Venezuela on Sunday and defended a controversial court ruling allowing the indefinite delay of the socialist leader’s inauguration.

    Waving photos and banners, and wearing the trademark red T-shirts of the “Chavistas,” as his supporters are known, hundreds gathered for assemblies in the capital and several other states.

    “Get well president! Here we are waiting for you with open arms,” cried Chavez supporter Clara Pacheco to government television cameras, which covered the rallies extensively throughout the day.

  • Saudi Arabia Rejects ‘Beheading’ Criticisms

    {{Saudi Arabia has criticised world reaction to its beheading a Sri Lankan maid convicted of killing her employer’s baby, SPA reported.}}

    Riyadh “deplores the statements made… over the execution of a Sri Lankan maid who had plotted and killed an infant by suffocating him to death, one week after she arrived in the kingdom,” the government spokesman said.

    Rizana Nafeek was beheaded on Wednesday in a case that sparked widespread international condemnation, including from rights groups which said she was just 17 when she was charged with murdering the baby in 2005.

    Nafeek was found guilty of smothering the infant after an argument with the child’s mother.

    The case soured diplomatic relations with Sri Lanka which on Thursday recalled its ambassador to Saudi Arabia in protest.

    The government spokesman condemned what he called “wrong information on the case,” and denied that the maid was a minor when she committed the crime.

    “As per her passport, she was 21 years old when she committed the crime,” he said, adding that “the kingdom does not allow minors to be brought as workers.”

    He said the authorities had tried hard to convince the baby’s family to accept “blood money,” but they rejected any amnesty and insisted that the maid be executed.

    ‘Deep dismay’

    Saudi Arabia “respects … all rules and laws and protects the rights of its people and residents, and completely rejects any intervention in its affairs and judicial verdicts, whatever the excuse,” the spokesman said.

    The UN’s human rights body on Friday expressed “deep dismay” at the beheading, and the European Union said it had asked the Saudi authorities to commute the death penalty.

    Human Rights Watch said Nafeek had retracted “a confession” that she said was made under duress. She said the baby accidentally choked to death while drinking from a bottle.

    Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia’s strict version of Sharia law.

    Last year the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom beheaded 76 people, according to an AFP news agency tally based on official figures, while HRW put the number at 69.

    So far in 2013, three people have been executed.

    {Agencies}

  • India Army Ordered to Hit Hard Pakistan

    {{India’s army’s chief of staff ordered an “aggressive” response Monday to any cross-border firing by Pakistan as commanders from both sides met to discuss a recent deadly flare-up in disputed Kashmir.}}

    “We expect our commanders to be aggressive,” General Bikram Singh said ahead of the brigade-level talks along the de facto border in Kashmir known as the Line of Control (Loc).

    “The orders are very clear: when provoked, I expect my unit commanders should fire back,” Singh added.

    India says one of its soldiers was beheaded and another was killed by the Pakistani army on January 8, an incident that has rocked an already fragile peace process between the two sides.

    Pakistan denies its troops were to blame for any such incident and says that two of its own soldiers were killed in the last eight days along the LoC, where a cease-fire has been in place since 2003.

    Singh said the treatment of the Indian soldiers was “an unpardonable act.”

    “We want the Pakistani army to hand over the head of the soldier as soon as possible,” he said at a press conference in New Delhi.

    “We want to keep the dialogue process on and also explore the best ways to communicate with Pakistan, but the attacks must stop,” Singh added.

    The general said the attack which led to the beheading must have been planned for up to a fortnight and reiterated the claim that it was the work of the Pakistan army.

    AFP

  • Greek Parliament Okays Tax Change Under Rescue Terms

    {{Greece’s parliament early Saturday approved a new tax bill, part of the latest batch of fiscal reforms tied to the country’s next slice of EU loans.}}

    The legislation, criticized by the opposition as another serious blow to middle-class incomes in the midst of a recession, was supported by 162 deputies from the governing three-party coalition in a vote held after midnight in the 300-strong parliament.

    The latest reform, the first part of a larger overhaul expected in April, broadens the tax base in the hope of increasing state revenue by about 2.5 billion euros ($3.3 billion) this year.

    It introduces new annual income thresholds for salaried taxpayers and scraps tax breaks for the self-employed, a class blamed for a large part of the tax evasion that has plagued state finances for decades.

    The conservative-led coalition government has been hit with several defections in the past few weeks in opposition to the continued austerity wave.

    It lost another deputy on Thursday.

    Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras had said the bill had to be voted on this week ahead of a meeting by European finance ministers that will determine the disbursement of Greece’s next loan installment.

    European Union leaders last month agreed to hand out 49.1 billion euros in aid in return for more austerity measures.

    Athens has already received 34.3 billion euros of this package and is poised to get another 9.2 billion euros at the end of this month if key fiscal reforms are carried out, followed by two more slices of 2.8 billion euros in February and March.

    The meeting by European finance ministers is expected on January 21.

    The International Monetary Fund, which is participating in Greece’s rescue, is also expected to decide this month whether to release its next share of the bailout, worth an additional 3.4 billion euros.

  • Korean Air Among Most Dangerous Airlines in World

    {{Korean Air has been ranked among the most dangerous airlines in the world.}}

    South Korea’s flag carrier was placed in the bottom fifth in terms of safety among 60 global airlines, according to 2012 data by Germany-based Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Centre.

    The JACDEC safety index showed that Korean Air, established in 1962, had nine flight disasters with 687 fatalities since 1983 when the center began its safety evaluations of the airline industry.

    Korean Air’s worst disaster was in 1983, when one of its airplanes was shot down by the former Soviet Union amid heightened tension between the U.S. and the communist country.

    The incident led to the death of 269 passengers and Korean Air staff.

    Korea Air’s rival Asiana was ranked 46th on the list with one accident and 68 casualties.

    Finnair was picked the safest airliner in the world, with China Airlines the most dangerous on the index.

  • Obama Picks Beyonce to Sing Anthem on Inauguration

    {{US President Barack Obama has hand-picked singer Beyonce to belt out the national anthem at his upcoming inauguration ceremony on January 21st.}}

    Four years ago, Beyonce sang the Etta James classis “At Last” for the President and first lady’s dance at the inaugural ball.

    Joining Beyonce will be Taylor Swift and Kelly Clarkson. Swift will be performing “America the Beautiful” and Clarkson will be singing “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.”