Geopolitical Monitor - News

NEW YORK January 10, 2008 (AP) - Gold soared to a record high Thursday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pledged to cut interest rates, undermining the dollar and boosting demand for the metal as a safe investment.

NEW YORK January 9, 2007 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs on Wednesday said it expects the U.S. economy to drop into recession this year, prompting the Federal Reserve to slash benchmark lending rates to 2.5 percent by the third quarter.

COLOMBO January 9, 2007 (Ranga Sirilal, Reuters) - Sri Lankan troops have captured a section of rebel-held territory in the island's northwest and killed 44 Tamil Tigers, the military said on Wednesday, as a new chapter in a 25-year civil war intensifies.

January 9, 2008 (John F. Burns, New York Times) - Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the 19-year-old son of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan’s assassinated opposition leader, said at a news conference in London that the United States would have to stop “supporting dictators” in Pakistan for Islamic extremism to be defeated there.

January 9, 2008 (AFP) - Kosovo's parliament approved on Wednesday the new government proposed by Prime Minister Hashim Thaci to lead the ethnic Albanian UN-run province to independence from Serbia.

NAIROBI January 9, 2008 (Bernard Namunane, The Monitor (Kampala)) - The government of Kenya and the Orange Democratic Movement have agreed on a power sharing deal and the possibility of creating the post of prime minister. They, however, differed on whether the holder should be given executive or ceremonial roles.

January 9, 2008 (London Independent) - The first signs that China's stock market bubble may be about to burst emerged yesterday as research from the Chinese Xinhua Finance company and the Milken Institute indicated a sharp decline in the value of shares recently floated on the Chinese exchanges.

WASHINGTON January 8, 2007 (Xinhua) - U.S. President George W. Bush met with his visiting Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul in the White House on Tuesday and both vowed to keep working together to confront the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

January 8, 2008 (AFP) - Serbia hopes to sign a key aid and trade pact with the European Union before the end of this month, Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said Tuesday, as its province of Kosovo heads toward independence.

Washington January 8, 2008 (AFP) - China has contingency plans to dispatch troops into North Korea and secure nuclear weapons in the event of instability in the hardline communist state, according to US experts who have talked to Chinese military researchers.