18 August, 2009

Australia has signed a record 41.3 billion US dollar deal to supply Chinese energy giant PetroChina with liquefied natural gas, officials said.The agreement, which represents the biggest foreign investment in Australia, is for PetroChina to buy 2.25 million tonnes a year over the next two decades from ExxonMobil's Gorgon gas ...

Weather experts prepared Tuesday to send an aircraft into the eye of Hurricane Bill, a Category 2 storm that is the first of the Atlantic storm season and continues to strengthen, forecasters said.Bill remained at Category 2 status Tuesday, but its top wind speeds increased slightly to 105 miles per ...

Northern hemisphere countries have so far ordered more than one billion doses of swine flu vaccine, the World Health Organisation said Tuesday.This intense demand coupled with production delays could create shortages, forcing governments that are preparing for a second, possibly more deadly, wave of flu in the fall to make ...

Kim Dae-Jung, a tireless democracy campaigner who survived assassination attempts and a death sentence to win South Korea's presidency and the Nobel peace prize, died on Tuesday aged 85.Kim was a towering figure in the country's decades of struggle for democracy against army-backed autocrats.During his 1998-2003 presidency he held South ...

Taliban attacks rocked Afghanistan Tuesday two days before landmark presidential elections, claiming at least 21 lives as a rocket slammed into the presidential compound in Kabul.The violence, striking at the heart of the capital, followed renewed Taliban threats to sabotage Thursday's ballot in which 17 million Afghans are eligible to ...

Two moments of misfortune cost Celtic dearly as Arsenal won 2-0 at Parkhead here Tuesday to leave the Hoops' chances of joining the Champions League group stages hanging by a thread.Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas' free-kick took a wild deflection off William Gallas to give the Gunners a half-time lead before ...

The global recovery from recession has begun but a delicate rebalancing of economies is needed to ensure its sustainability, the International Monetary Fund's chief economist said Tuesday."The recovery has started. Sustaining it will require delicate rebalancing acts, both within and across countries," Olivier Blanchard said in an IMF article, released ...

The United States is "criminally investigating" more than 150 US customers of Swiss bank UBS on suspicion they concealed income and assets to avoid US taxes, court documents said Tuesday."The United States is criminally investigating more than 150 Americans across the country who are believed to have concealed income and ...

America's Sanya Richards secured her first global individual gold here on Tuesday when she won the women's 400 metres world title at the world athletics championships.The 24-year-old timed 49.00secs - the best time in the world this season - to beat home Jamaica's Shericka Williams (49.32sec) while Russia's Antonina Krivoshapka ...

Olympic 200m champion and world record holder Usain Bolt remained on course to claim a world sprint double after coasting through to the semi-finals of the event here on Tuesday."I am okay. I may have looked tired this morning because the 200m was earlier than the 100m," said Bolt, who ...