Berlin - Germany is considering appointing a special envoy on Afghanistan to liase with the new US envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman confirmed Saturday in Berlin.
The news magazine Der Spiegel said Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had already chosen the envoy. He would be Bernd Muetzelburg, 65, the German ambassador to India, who would take leave from his embassy duties for the special role, Spiegel said.
But the spokeswoman declined to confirm this, saying no formal appointment had been made.
Rome - Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven (G7) most-industrialized nations ended talks Saturday with a pledge to re-establish confidence in the stricken global financial system and to stimulate a world-wide economic recovery.
A concluding statement after the gathering in Rome also renewed a committment to avoid protectionist measures.
"An open system of global trade and investment is indispensable for global prosperity," the statement said.
Washington - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday she plans to attend an international donors conference in Egypt next month to help rebuild the Gaza Strip following Israeli's military assault in the tiny enclave.
During a speech at the Asia Society in New York Clinton said that she will participate in the March 2 conference, one day after meeting Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Ali Aboul Gheit in Washington.
Washington - The United States is prepared to normalize relations and sign a peace treaty with North Korea if the Stalinist state abandons its nuclear weapons programme, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday.
Clinton, speaking at the Asia Society in New York days ahead of her trip to Asia, said Washington would also provide economic and energy aid to North Korea as long as Pyongyang adhered to a 2006 disarmament agreement.
Havana - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has not been seen in public since 2006, was "very agile and active," said Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Cuban media reported Friday.
"He is in very good condition, we talked for long," Bachelet told reporters late Thursday after the meeting.
"Someone who spends an hour and a half talking (is) well, very well, very agile, active as always," said the Chilean president, a doctor by training.
Berlin - Germany is considering appointing a special envoy on Afghanistan to liase with the new US envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman confirmed Saturday in Berlin.
Rome - Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven (G7) most-industrialized nations ended talks Saturday with a pledge to re-establish confidence in the stricken global financial system and to stimulate a world-wide economic recovery.
Washington - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday she plans to attend an international donors conference in Egypt next month to help rebuild the Gaza Strip following Israeli's military assault in the tiny enclave.
Washington - The United States is prepared to normalize relations and sign a peace treaty with North Korea if the Stalinist state abandons its nuclear weapons programme, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday.
Havana - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has not been seen in public since 2006, was "very agile and active," said Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Cuban media reported Friday.
