International News

Britain pressed the G20 on Saturday to come up with a plan to make banks pay for any future bailouts but one idea of imposing a global financial transactions tax was immediately shot down by the United States.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Saturday stressed the necessity of keeping global economic stimulus in place until recovery is assured and opposed the utility of a tax on financial transactions as a way to dampen risky bank behavior.

Britain threw its weight on Saturday behind proposals to impose a global levy on banks to fund future bailouts but failed to make much progress on securing a G20 deal to meet the cost of climate change.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said high unemployment rates show that economic recovery is still perilous and governments need to maintain stimulus as long as necessary to ensure sustained growth.

Global economic conditions have improved but are still uneven and dependent on policy support, according to a draft of the G20 finance ministers' and central bankers' end-of-meeting communique.

London, Nov 7 (IANS) British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Saturday resurrected the idea of the international community imposing a global tax on banks as a repayment for the billions of pounds of taxpayers' money they have received from governments.

British finance minister Alistair Darling urged his G20 counterparts on Saturday to work toward a $100 billion deal to tackle climate change but developing nations insisted they did not want to talk about it.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday listed a range of fresh options being considered by the White House to spur growth after "sobering" news that unemployment spiked to a 26 1/2-year peak last month.

Thimphu, Nov 7 (IANS) Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has sought a road to Bhutan through India for bettr trade and people-to-people contact. She told her hosts at this Bhutanese capital that India had accepted the idea in principle.

Frankfurt, Nov 7 (DPA) The European chief of General Motors (GM), Carl-Peter Forster, may switch to Indian car manufacturer Tata, German media reported Saturday.

Following are comments on Saturday from Group of 20 finance ministers, central bank policymakers and officials meeting in Scotland.

China is not counting on a quick rebound in the world economy to fuel growth but will concentrate instead on boosting home-grown demand, Yao Jingyuan, chief economist at the National Bureau of Statistics, said on Saturday.

Dhaka, Nov 7 (IANS) Former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia has blamed 'instigation by competitor foreign countries' for the recurring violence in the country's money-spinning garment sector.

New York, Nov 7 (IANS) A major US toilet tissue company is offering a $10,000 pay to five enthusiastic people willing to hang out at its Times Square restrooms for six weeks as its ambassadors during the holiday season.

Washington, Nov 7 (IANS) With new players like India and Brazil taking a seat at the table of global influence, the international system that emerged at the end of World War-II is being transformed, according to the top US intelligence official.

Dhaka, Nov 7 (IANS) Bangladesh is set to release three flood-tolerant rice varieties to farmers that would help prevent up to a million tonnes of annual crop loss caused by flash floods every year.

Canada has mounted its biggest campaign yet to sell the United States on the energy security benefits of the oil sands as Washington debates new environmental policy, the country's energy minister said on Friday.

U.S. government-to-government arms sales rose 4.7 percent to a record $38.1 billion last year, and are expected to total almost as much in 2010, the Pentagon agency that administers them said on Friday.

A British-born Florida yacht broker and former client of Swiss bank UBS AG received a reduced, two-month prison sentence for tax fraud on Friday because he cooperated with a U.S. investigation into the bank.