Every Wednesday you will find links and top-line summaries to current events around the globe.
Pakistan ‘Push Into Taliban Area’ [BBC]
- The Pakistani army has said it has pushed deeper into South Waziristan as it battles to wrestle control of the region from the Taliban and al-Qaeda
- Pakistan has sent two divisions totaling 28,000 soldiers to the region where an estimated 10,000 – 20,000 Taliban militants reside
- South Waziristan is considered to be the first major haven for Islamic militants outside Afghanistan since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US
New Medical Marijuana Policy Issued in United States [New York Times]
- The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new policy guidelines to be sent to federal prosecutors Monday
- The new policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal anti-pot laws regardless of state codes
- Fourteen states allow some use of marijuana for medical purposes: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. California is unique among those for the widespread presence of dispensaries
Apple’s Profit Climbs 47% as Sales Gain [New York Times]
- Shares of Apple have already nearly doubled this year as they passed $200 for the first time since late 2007. Wall Street has been impressed by rebounding momentum in the Mac business and Apple’s leadership in the battle for smartphones
- Apple said it sold 3.05 million Macs in the quarter, up about 17 percent from the 2.6 million it sold in the same quarter last year. Global PC sales rose 2.3 percent in the third quarter of the year, according to the market tracking firm IDC. Macintosh sales have now grown faster than the rest of the PC market in 19 of the last 20 quarters
- Apple continued to mine gold from the summer introduction of a new smartphone, the iPhone 3GS. Apple sold 7.4 million phones in the quarter, up from 6.9 million units sold in the year-ago quarter and ahead of Wall Street’s expectation of about seven million iPhones
Afghanistan’s Karzai Agrees to Election Run-Off [Reuters]
- President Hamid Karzai agreed to face a second round of voting in Afghanistan’s disputed election on Tuesday after a U.N.-led fraud inquiry tossed out enough of his votes to trigger a run-off. Karzai’s decision immediately eased tensions with the West
- Karzai, who is a Pashtun, Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group, is almost certain to win the run-off but the level of mass fraud alleged in the first round will cast a shadow over the new vote. Security issues are also of concern at a time when the insurgency is as strong as it has ever been and with winter approaching, which could disrupt voting
- More than 100,000 foreign troops, two-thirds of them Americans, are in Afghanistan fighting Taliban insurgents
Rising Debt a Threat to Japanese Economy [New York Times]
- In Japan, years of stimulus spending on expensive dams and roads have inflated the country’s gross public debt to twice the size of its $5 trillion economy — by far the highest debt-to-G.D.P. ratio in recent memory. Just paying the interest on its debt consumed a fifth of Japan’s budget for 2008
- Tokyo’s new government, which won a landslide victory on an ambitious (and expensive) social agenda, is set to issue a record amount of debt, borrowing more in government bonds than it will receive in tax receipts for the first time since the years after World War II
- One hugely important difference is that Japan is rich in personal savings and assets, and owes less than 10 percent of its debt to foreigners. By comparison, about 46 percent of America’s debt is held overseas by countries such as China and Japan
- Site Lets Investors See and Copy Experts’ Trades [New York Times]
- Military Police in Brazil Launch Manhunt in Several Slums to Find Gunmen Who Shot Down Police Helicopter [BBC]
- Hijacked China Ship Shows Pirates Extending Reach [Reuters]
- Indonesian President Faces Challenges in New Term [Reuters]
- Nigeria to Give 10% of Oil Revenues to People of Niger Delta [BBC]
- Yahoo Triples Profit, Beats Expectations [Reuters]
- Thin Line Separates Insider Trading and Research [New York Times]
Source: The Economist
- The number of chronically hungry people in the world will rise from 913m in 2008 to 1.02 billion this year, a sixth of the global population, says the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation in its annual report on food insecurity
- Food prices that are 17% higher than they were two years ago, and big falls in remittances and investment are contributing to growing hunger
- The FAO notes that global food output will have to increase by 70% to feed a population projected at 9.1 billion in 2050
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