Johannesburg - South Africa's frontrunner for president, Jacob Zuma, defended the government's refusal to deny the Dalai Lama a visa, even as the organizers of the 2010 football World Cup expressed disappointment at the subsequent canning of a 2010-related peace conference.
Zuma is the president of the ruling African National Congress party. He is poised to replace President Kgalema Motlanthe as leader after general elections on April 22 that the ANC is favoured to win.
Sao Paolo - Next week's meeting of the world's largest economies at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in London would be a step toward transforming global power relations while the Group of Eight's (G8) role might have come to its end, British Trade Minister Peter Mandelson said.
The reforms expected at the London summit were a signal that the "era of the G8" is over, Mandelson - who accompanied Prime Minister Gordon Brown of G8 member Britain on a trip to Brazil - said Thursday at a speech in Sao Paolo.
Wellington - Helen Clark, prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 until defeated in last November's elections, has been appointed to head the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), unconfirmed news reports said on Wednesday.
A spokesman for Clark, who was known to be on a short-list of three for the job, would not confirm the appointment and said that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had not made his preference public but an announcement was close.
Geneva/Berlin - Switzerland and Germany are friendly neighbours and big commercial partners, but a war of words over banking secrecy is shaking the relationship, and few punches are being pulled.
Fights between friends and family can be nastier than enemies.
The row started a week ago, when Peer Steinbrueck, Germany's finance minister, said in an off-the-cuff remark that so-called tax havens were running scared, like Native Americans fleeing mounted troops.
Hong Kong - Israeli diplomats in China have raised concerns over a national business awards contest with a logo that looks similar to the Nazi SS insignia, a news report said Monday.
Billboard posters for the China Top Brand awards scheme have appeared in Hong Kong with an logo that looks similar to the lightning-strike style insignia used by the German SS, a powerful paramilitary organization, responsible for many of the Nazi's worst crimes.
Bangkok - Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya left Sunday for an official two-day visit to Myanmar that is expected to touch on the controversial issue of the two countries' joint efforts to solve the ethnic minority Rohingya problem.
In his first official visit to Myanmar as foreign minister, Kasit will meet Prime Minister General Thein Sein and his counterpart Nyan Win in the military's new capital of Naypyitaw, 350 kilometres north of Yangon.
Johannesburg - South Africa's frontrunner for president, Jacob Zuma, defended the government's refusal to deny the Dalai Lama a visa, even as the organizers of the 2010 football World Cup expressed disappointment at the subsequent canning of a 2010-related peace conference.
Sao Paolo - Next week's meeting of the world's largest economies at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in London would be a step toward transforming global power relations while the Group of Eight's (G8) role might have come to its end, British Trade Minister Peter Mandelson said.
Wellington - Helen Clark, prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 until defeated in last November's elections, has been appointed to head the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), unconfirmed news reports said on Wednesday.
Geneva/Berlin - Switzerland and Germany are friendly neighbours and big commercial partners, but a war of words over banking secrecy is shaking the relationship, and few punches are being pulled.
Hong Kong - Israeli diplomats in China have raised concerns over a national business awards contest with a logo that looks similar to the Nazi SS insignia, a news report said Monday.
Bangkok - Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya left Sunday for an official two-day visit to Myanmar that is expected to touch on the controversial issue of the two countries' joint efforts to solve the ethnic minority Rohingya problem.
