Britain’s opposition Conservative Member of Parliament Tory John Bercow won the race to replace Michael Martin as Speaker of the House of Commons. Mr Bercow, MP for Buckingham, topped all three secret ballots - beating his only challenger in the third round, Sir George Young - by 51 votes.
The influential economist Nouriel Roubini, who rose to prominence for predicting the global credit crisis, said there is a risk that advanced economies will suffer a double dip recession and pointed out he saw more signs of yellow weeds than the green shoots of economic recovery.
Amidst global economic recession and financial-market fragility, net private capital inflows to developing countries fell to 707 billion US dollars in 2008, a sharp drop from a peak of 1.2 trillion in 2007. International capital flows are projected to fall further in 2009, to 363 billion US dollars, according to the latest report from the World Bank.
Because food is a basic necessity, the agriculture sector is showing more resilience to the global economic crisis than other industries. But the risks could increase if the economic downturn deepens, according to a new report by the OECD and FAO released this week.
Europe's central bank chief on Sunday cautioned against any new government stimulus plans and predicted the global economy will pick up in 2010. But he also warned it would be a mistake to believe that recovery is a foregone conclusion.
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez openly supported the Iran regime and called for “respect” for the country and an end to attempts “to erode the strength of the Iranian revolution”.
Officials in Brazil have identified the first 11 of 50 bodies recovered from the Air France Flight 447 disaster in which 228 people died three weeks ago. The bodies were those of 10 Brazilians and one male foreigner, officials said. They gave no further details
World hunger is projected to reach a historic high in 2009 with 1.020 million people going hungry every day, according to new estimates published by FAO this week.
With the second-highest recorded cereals crop expected this year and stocks replenished, the world food supply looks less vulnerable to shocks than it was during last year’s food crisis, FAO said in its Food Outlook report published this month. But some potential dangers remain, it also noted.
The Arctic island of Greenland is assuming self-rule, in the latest step towards independence from Denmark. The move follows a referendum on greater autonomy in November. It will see Greenland take a greater share of revenues from its natural resources.