Every Wednesday you will find links and top-line summaries to current events around the globe.
Google Adds Live Updates to Results [New York Times]
- On Monday, Google said it would begin supplementing its search results with the updates posted each second to sites like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. As part of its entrance into the field known as real-time search, users would begin seeing brand-new tweets, blog items, news articles and social networking updates in results for certain topical searches
- Google struck formal partnerships with Twitter, Facebook and MySpace to quickly bring updates from those services into its search index. The companies did not disclose terms of those deals. Facebook has said publicly it is not earning money from the deal, and is giving Google updates only from the public profile pages on the service, which can already be seen by anyone on the Web
- Google introduced several other products at its event on Monday. The most ambitious, called Google Goggles, allows people to send Google a cellphone photograph of, say, a landmark or a book, and have information about the contents of the image returned to them instantly
Japan unveils $81 billion economic stimulus [Reuters]
- Japan’s government agreed on a $81 billion stimulus package on Tuesday, aimed at preventing the economy from tipping back into recession as deflation persists and a strong yen threatens exports. Economists said the 7.2 trillion yen plan, equal to about 1.5% of gross domestic product, would not provide a significant lift to an economy dependent on overseas demand for machinery, electronics and cars
- Japan continues to struggle amid chronically weak consumer demand and falling prices. Japan pulled out of recession in April-June thanks to a recovery in exports but figures due on Wednesday are expected to show third-quarter growth was much slower than an initial estimate. Growth is seen slowing further in the first half of next year as the effect of nearly 27 trillion yen stimulus agreed by the previous Liberal Democratic Party government, wears off
- The new package, earmarked for low-interest mortgages for new home buyers, incentives for users of “green” technologies and extended subsidies for energy-efficient cars and household appliances, aims to encourage reluctant Japanese consumers to spend more
Bombs kill 43 in Pakistan; amnesty case stirs tension [Reuters]
- Two bombs went off in a market in the eastern city of Lahore killing 34 people and wounding 109, a top city official said, hours after a suicide bomber killed nine people outside a court in the northwestern city of Peshawar. Pakistan, an ally that the U.S. needs to help fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, is facing relentless security troubles as well as U.S. pressure to step up its fight against militants
- Doubts are growing that President Asif Ali Zardari can survive politically in the long term, let alone lead the charge against Islamist fighters who have shown they can penetrate security near the headquarters of the all-powerful military. Some of Zardari’s closest aides may face revived corruption charges depending on the ruling of the Supreme Court, which took up legal challenges to an amnesty order granted to about 8,000 people, including the interior and defense ministers
- Northwestern Peshawar has suffered the most from retaliatory bombings that have killed hundreds of people since October, when the army launched an offensive in South Waziristan on the Afghan border, part of a region seen as a global militant hub
Car bombs kill 112 in coordinated Baghdad attacks [Reuters]
- At least four car bombs killed 112 people in Baghdad on Tuesday, leaving charred buses and scattered body parts in a blow to the government’s efforts to show it can defend Iraqis before U.S. troops withdraw in 2011. The blasts could undermine Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s claims to have brought security to Iraq as he campaigns for a March 7 election and also rattle foreign oil executives due in Baghdad this week for an auction of oilfield contracts
- Tuesday’s attacks were the worst in Baghdad since October 25, when two truck bombs killed 155 people at the Justice Ministry and the Baghdad governor’s offices. In August, 95 people were killed when the Finance and Foreign Ministries were targeted
- Iraq’s Oil Ministry said it would not cancel the planned tender of oilfield development contracts on December 11 and 12, which executives from the world’s main oil companies are due to attend. The deals are seen as crucial to Iraq’s efforts to raise the cash required to rebuild after years of war and destruction
EBay and Craigslist square off in Delaware court [Reuters]
- EBay sued Craigslist in 2008 for lowering its ownership stake to 24.85% from 28.4%, causing the e-commerce giant to lose its seat on Craigslist’s board. Craigslist sued eBay a month later in San Francisco, saying the larger rival used its board seat to glean information to launch its own classified site, Kijiji, and employed deceptive tactics to direct traffic away from Craigslist’s site
- EBay Inc’s former chief executive, Meg Whitman, who is running for governor of California and took the stand on Monday, denied eBay was out to steal Craigslist’s secrets. She said eBay had bought shares of Craigslist from disgruntled shareholder Philip Knowlton in 2004 in the hope of ultimately owning the company outright and keeping competitors at bay
- Despite generating $8.5 billion of revenue in 2008 and employing thousands of people, the San Jose-based company has been forced to broaden its market to better compete and expand beyond its traditional online auctions. In contrast, privately held Craigslist, with only a few dozen employees, is now the top U.S. online classifieds site, beloved for its mostly free service
Basescu wins Romanian election, rivals cry foul [Reuters]
- Romanian President Traian Basescu narrowly won re-election but his leftist challenger alleged fraud and vowed to contest the result, extending a deadlock that has imperiled an IMF-led financial rescue deal. Basescu won 50.3% to 49.7% for Social Democrat leader Mircea Geoana, official results showed on Monday, a razor-thin margin that deepened a political schism in the EU newcomer that has paralyzed reforms
- The vote was one of the most important for the Balkan state since Stalinist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was overthrown and shot 20 years ago. The victor must appoint a new government that can restart talks with the International Monetary Fund and win the next tranche of a $29.76 billion aid deal
- Basescu, who had trailed Geoana in opinion polls, owed his victory by about 70,000 votes to winning more than three-quarters of the 148,000 ballots cast by Romanians living abroad
This decade ‘warmest on record’ [BBC]
- The first decade of this century is “by far” the warmest since instrumental records began. The World Meteorological Organization analysis will also show that 2009 will almost certainly be the fifth warmest in the 160-year record
- The US space agency Nasa suggests that a new global temperature record will be set “in the next one or two years”. Other researchers, though, believe it more likely that temperatures will remain stable for up to a decade as other natural cycles keep the ocean’s surface relatively cool, with rapid warming likely after that
- Climate “sceptics” have claimed that temperatures have not been rising over the last decade. Of the two widely-used global temperature records, one – the UK HadCRUT3 record – shows an apparent plateau from 1998 to 2008. But climate scientists point out that this result is achieved by taking 1998 as the starting point. Taking, for instance, 1997 or 1999 as the starting point, they argue, produces a different result
Mexicans in drug war city call on army to leave [Reuters]
- Around 5,000 people marched through Ciudad Juarez on the U.S. border, many with white balloons and holding signs saying “leave Juarez, soldiers and federal police.” It was a rare protest in a city where most people are too frightened to speak out, and a show of the depth of anger at the army’s failure to stop drug murders
- Gruesome drug killings have surged in Ciudad Juarez since President Felipe Calderon sent in 10,000 troops and federal police to crush warring cartels in March. After being received as heroes, the army has lost public support as the city’s death tally from cartel violence has risen to 2,400 so far this year, compared with 1,600 in all of 2008
- Ciudad Juarez has become the bloodiest flashpoint in Mexico’s fight against feuding drug cartels in a war that has killed more than 15,000 people across the country since Calderon took office in late 2006. With over 235,000 manufacturing jobs and 70 Fortune 500 companies in the Ciudad Juarez-El Paso area, investors and Washington officials had hoped to see a quick victory in the Mexican city and a domino effect across the country
Philippines arrests under martial law [BBC]
- Philippines police have arrested more than 60 people and found a major arms and ammunition cache, in raids after a poll-related massacre in the south. The crackdown, on a clan linked to the massacre, came after President Gloria Arroyo declared martial law in Maguindanao province
- It is the first time martial law has been used in the country since the fall of autocrat Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. Fifty-seven people including 30 journalists died in the massacre
- Former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr, and four of his sons, were among suspects held earlier in the week. They deny involvement in the 23 November massacre. One of the sons, Andal Ampatuan Jr, is suspected of orchestrating the killings and has been charged with 25 counts of murder
- Hubble sees most distant galaxies [BBC]
- How the U.S. Became Stage the for a Mexican Drug Feud [New York Times]
- Sudan peace in serious crisis, says SPLM’s Pagan Amum [BBC]
- Picking (Up) Winners Without Placing a Bet [New York Times]
- Dubai “needs more time”; investor confidence hit [Reuters]
- Bolivia’s Morales heading to landslide re-election [Reuters]
- Club Owner Charged in Russian Fire [New York Times]
- Charities Rise, Costing U.S. Billions in Tax Breaks [New York Times]
- Pakistan buries victims of Rawalpindi mosque attack [BBC]
- Mafia ‘second-in-command’ arrested in Italy [BBC]
- No Bin Laden information in years, says Gates [BBC]
Athenians participate in a demonstration in central Athens, Greece on the first anniversary of the killing of a teenager by police, 07 December 2009. Greek police fired tear gas to disperse rioting youths on 07 December during a second day of protests to mark the anniversary of the police shooting of a teenager, which sparked the worst violence the country has seen in decades. Thousands of hooded youths, the majority of them high school students, threw petrol bombs and chunks of marble at riot police during a protect march through Athens city centre. Authorities said nine people were arrested. EPA/PANTELIS SAITAS
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