Month: January 2015

With the US stalling quota reforms in the IMF that would increase the stakes of emerging countries like India, the world body today said it is working on alternate measures to go ahead with much-needed reforms that reflect the ground realities of the 21st century.

The IMF Executive Board said it would take another six months to map out the reform and thus complete the 15th review by December 15, 2015.

The 2010 reforms were backed by the US but now are being blocked by the US Congress.

The US Senate Banking Committee approved a controversial measure today that would ratchet up sanctions on Iran, a legislative weapon Congress could wield after March if international nuclear talks hit an impasse.

Senators voted 18 to 4 to advance the so-called Kirk-Menendez bill, which is steadfastly opposed by the White House.

“It is clear that further action is necessary to compel Iran to reach an acceptable agreement, which is why I strongly support this critical bill,” committee chairman Senator Richard Shelby said after the vote.

Youths angry at the Nigerian government’s failure to fight Islamic extremists threw stones today at President Goodluck Jonathan’s electioneering convoy in the eastern town of Jalingo, breaking windshields and windows on several vehicles.

Police used tear gas and whips to disperse the mob. From Jalingo, Jonathan flew to Yola, capital of Adamawa state, where officials had declared the route of his motorcade a no-go area.

Britain summoned Russia’s ambassador today and asked him to explain why Russian warplanes flew near British airspace, disrupting civil aviation.

The Foreign Office said today that Royal Air Force Typhoon jets were scrambled to escort Russian Bear bombers in a “U.K. area of interest” on Wednesday. The Russian planes did not enter British airspace, but flew along the coast and over the English Channel without communicating with British air traffic control.

The special prosecutor whose mysterious death set off a political firestorm in Argentina was laid to rest today, as an investigation tries to determine whether he died by his own hand or was murdered.

Alberto Nisman, 51, was buried in a Jewish cemetery on the outskirts of Buenos Aires near several of the victims who died in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish charity known as AMIA.

Nisman had spent the last 14 years of his life trying to unravel who carried out the horrific attack, which killed 85 people and injured another 300.

A French general today described the scene of horror that unravelled in Spain when an F-16 Greek fighter jet experienced a technical failure on take-off and crashed into pilots and mechanics on the ground.

Nine French and two Greek personnel died and about 20 people were injured Monday after the two-seater F-16, owned by Greece, crashed into parked aircraft at the Los Llanos base in southeastern Spain during a NATO exercise.

Lawmakers failed to elect a new Italian president today in balloting that tests Premier Matteo Renzi’s ability to rally his fractured party behind a candidate that is also acceptable to opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi, whose support he has courted for the government’s ambitious reform agenda.

Even as the names on the hand-written ballots from the 1,009 electors were still being read aloud, it was clear that, as expected, no candidate had come remotely close to the two-thirds majority needed to elect a new head of state in the first three rounds.

Ami Bera, an influential India- American lawmaker, today said he will build on President Barack Obama’s India trip and work with the country’s new Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar to take bilateral ties forward.

Jaishankar, who today took charge as the country’s new Foreign Secretary, till yesterday was the Indian Ambassador to the US.

“Congratulations to new Foreign Secretary Jaishankar. He’s been an excellent ambassador to the US and a dedicated public servant to India,” Congressman Bera said.

US President Barack Obama does not plan to return the territory on which the Guantanamo Bay naval base is located to Cuba, although he aims at closing down the prison set up there, the White House said Thursday.

During a speech Wednesday at the Community of Latin American and Carribean States (CELAC) summit in Costa Rica, Cuban President Raul Castro mentioned the return of Guantanamo Bay as one of the matters pending in the process launched to normalise relations with Washington.