Afghanistan's president warned on Wednesday that world could suffer terribly from the "wildfire" of terrorism engulfing his region, thickening the gloom at a meeting of political and economic leaders already worried about the threat of global recession.
Formally opening this year's World Economic Forum, Hamid Karzai listed a sobering rundown of the attacks attributed to Islamist terrorists in recent months -- among them the December assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto and deadly bombings in Afghanistan and Pakistan that claimed dozens of victims, including many schoolchildren.
With terrorism still on the rise in the region six years after the ouster of the Taliban, "it seems like the mutant of extremism is dangerously unleashed across the region," Karzai said, warning that the trend "bodes terribly badly for the whole world."
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a US ally in the fight against terrorism, is attending the conference in Davos as well, as part of a European tour seeking to reassure the West that he was still in control of his country after months of political instability. Both leaders held talks on Wednesday with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but there was no indication they would meet each other.
Musharraf spokesman Rashid Qureshi said that the meeting with Rice "went very well" adding that there was "total consonance and unanimity of views" on joint efforts to fight terrorism and a feeling that the sharing of intelligence between the two countries was "excellent."
How to stem terrorism is one of the themes at the Forum, along with climate change, pursuing a workable peace process in the Middle East and how technology is ushering in a new age of social networking that knows no borders.
Still, with many participants heavily exposed to the markets -- and sharing the realization that economic downturn can breed political turmoil -- the main focus on Wednesday was on the fear of world recession.
Rice, in a nod to the economic anxiety at the forum, told an audience of chief executives, politicians and others that the US economy was resilient and would remain an "engine of growth."
Rice also said the US would welcome foreign investment and free trade, "and our economy will remain a leading engine of global economic growth."
Many leading participants shared the view that the world could not escape the effects of the US' economic malaise, marked by the subprime crisis, loss of business confidence, poor company reports and a roiling stock market.
World markets remained volatile on Wednesday, with Asia closing up and Wall Street staging a stunning comeback but European stocks falling despite the US Federal Reserve's surprise interest rate cut the day before aimed at shoring up the sagging US economy. The fireworks added weight to fears at Davos that the world could be sliding into recession.
"We're in Round 1 or 2. This is a 15-round fight," declared Guillermo Ortiz, governor of the Central Bank of Mexico, suggesting the worst might yet be coming.
Billionaire George Soros called for a radical cure -- a massive injection of regulation and oversight over financial markets whose excessive freedoms have caused "not a normal crisis but the end of an era."
"Authorities ought to go in and examine the books" of financial institutions, Soros said -- and provide assurance that "they will rescue and even take over banks that become insolvent."
He blamed the US Federal Reserve for keeping interest rates too low for too long.
Meanwhile, former US vice president Al Gore and U2 frontman Bono offered measured praise yesterday for efforts in tackling climate change and global poverty, but warned the World Economic Forum that conditions were not improving as much as they could.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home