Brussels - European Union leaders said Friday they were leading world efforts to reform global finance by agreeing on a common set of principles and on five specific recommendations to avert future credit crunches.
The common EU position, agreed after more than three hours of "intense" discussions over lunch in Brussels, is intended to lay the groundwork for a Group of 20 summit of the world's leading economies, such as the United States, China and India, due to take place in Washington on November 15.
Nairobi/Goma - African leaders attending an emergency summit in Nairobi on the conflict currently engulfing the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have urged an immediate ceasefire and the extension of UN peacekeeping powers in the country.
The summit also called for the creation of humanitarian corridors to help the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the conflict in the North Kivu region of eastern Congo.
Washington - General Motors Corp warned Friday that it was running out of the minimum cash it needs to operate till the end of the year, and posted third-quarter operating losses of 4.2 billion dollars.
GM, the largest US automaker, has sought federal aid to avoid a collapse. The company said it needs at least 11 billion dollars in cash each month to pay its bills.
In the third quarter, GM used 6.9 billion dollars in cash and said it could fall below the minimum it needs to operate for the rest of the year.
London - Steel giant Corus, Europe's second-largest steel company owned by India's Tata Steel, Friday announced plans to cut production by 30 per cent over the next six months.
The company, formerly British Steel, cited the global economic downturn for its decision to close two blast furnaces at its plants in Britain, and one in the Netherlands, until next March.
On Thursday, Corus said 400 jobs would be cut in its distribution business, which employs 2,400 people in Britain and Ireland.
Baghdad - Hungary, Bulgaria and South Korea will each withdraw their troops from Iraq by the end of 2008, a spokesman for Iraq's Ministry of Defence told the Voices of Iraq news agency on Friday.
The troops will leave after finishing their tour of duty, said spokesman Mohamed al-Askary adding that most of the soldiers duties were "humanitarian."
Bulgarian Minister of Defence Teodor Melescanu was quoted by US media as saying some Bulgarian personnel would stay in Iraq to work as advisors to the Iraqi national authorities.
Brussels - Lithuania and Poland should bow to the majority of European Union member states and approve the immediate relaunch of talks on a strategic deal with Russia, despite their own security concerns, top EU officials warned Friday.
The decision to restart talks "may not be 100 per cent what your feelings are, but it's better for you to be together with all the other (EU) states in expressing a view rather than having some countries making agreements with Russia and others not," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.
Brussels - European Union leaders said Friday they were leading world efforts to reform global finance by agreeing on a common set of principles and on five specific recommendations to avert future credit crunches.
Nairobi/Goma - African leaders attending an emergency summit in Nairobi on the conflict currently engulfing the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have urged an immediate ceasefire and the extension of UN peacekeeping powers in the country.
Washington - General Motors Corp warned Friday that it was running out of the minimum cash it needs to operate till the end of the year, and posted third-quarter operating losses of 4.2 billion dollars.
London - Steel giant Corus, Europe's second-largest steel company owned by India's Tata Steel, Friday announced plans to cut production by 30 per cent over the next six months.
Baghdad - Hungary, Bulgaria and South Korea will each withdraw their troops from Iraq by the end of 2008, a spokesman for Iraq's Ministry of Defence told the Voices of Iraq news agency on Friday.
Brussels - Lithuania and Poland should bow to the majority of European Union member states and approve the immediate relaunch of talks on a strategic deal with Russia, despite their own security concerns, top EU officials warned Friday.
