United States

Crisis shows up uninvited to GM's 100th birthday party

Crisis shows up uninvited to GM's 100th birthday partyDetroit - No one gets to choose their birthday. That goes for people as well as corporations. Next week, a US industrial giant will mark its centennial, but it couldn't be coming at a worse time.

General Motors, once the largest US corporation and the world's leading automaker, will turn 100 on Tuesday. CEO Rick Wagoner says GM will begin its second century in the midst of fundamental changes in the auto industry.

Winds and rain from Hurricane Ike reach Texas coast

Winds and rain from Hurricane Ike reach Texas coastHouston - Hurricane Ike began lashing the Texas coast late Friday with strong winds and heavy rains on Galveston, a barrier island of 60,000 residents.

Forecasters warned that residents in one or two-story buildings could face certain death from likely 8 metre storm surge flooding if they had followed evacuation orders.

Google's Chrome: Browser destined for domination?

Google's Chrome: Browser destined for domination?Washington - The problem: The things people want to do on the Internet are growing by leaps and bounds, but Internet browsers have advanced at a snail's pace.

The solution, at least according to Google, is Google Chrome, a new browser from the Internet search giant that promises to shake up the Web browser market almost overnight.

Why would Google want to enter the browser market? The official line at Google is that today's major Web browsers were created at a time when their primary purpose was to display static pages of information.

ANALYSIS: US is villain number 1 for South America's leftists

Buenos Aires/La Paz - These are difficult times for US diplomacy in South America. Bolivia and Venezuela expelled the US ambassadors from their countries, in aggressive and often abusive, televised announcements by their presidents.

It started with Evo Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president and an ally of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. In a dramatic television appearance Wednesday he said: "Without fear of the empire, I declare today to the Bolivian people that Mr Goldberg, the ambassador of the United States, is persona non grata."

Taiwan-based Chinese dissident raps US for rejecting asylum request

Taiwan-based Chinese dissident raps US for rejecting asylum requestTaipei - A Taiwan-based Chinese dissident on Saturday blasted the United States, calling the country "as crooked as China" for rejecting an asylum request made by him and two other Chinese dissidents.

Cai Lujun made the denouncement in an open letter, following the rejection of his asylum request by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the de facto US embassy in Taiwan.

Terror storm Ike prepares to swallow Galveston

Terror storm Ike prepares to swallow GalvestonLa Marque, Texas - Hurricane Ike Friday stalked hungrily across the Gulf of Mexico with its victim firmly in its sights.

By early Saturday morning, Galveston, a barrier island of 60,000 residents, faced certain devastation from Ike's 165-kilometre-an-hour winds. Those who refused to evacuate faced nearly certain death, forecasters warned.

"Galveston could disappear," said John Dennis, who was waiting in line at one of the only operating petrol stations in La Marque, the first town on the Texas mainland from Galveston.

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