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When Nguyen Tan Dung became Prime Minister of Vietnam two years ago, the former central bank governor was widely viewed as a progressive who would continue to drive the communist country's remarkable transition from moribund planned economy to a booming capitalist one. But this year, Vietnam's outlook has dimmed. While GDP growth remains strong at more than 7%, the inflation rate has rocketed to 25%, there have been a large number of outbreaks of labor unrest and the stock market has plunged by nearly two-thirds since January, making it the worst-performing in the world...
...going to raise that issue. Vietnam is the world's second-largest rice exporter. This year we have already exported 2.2 million tons of rice, up by 20% compared with the same period last year. This morning I had a conversation over the phone with Thailand's Prime Minister [Thailand is the world's largest rice exporter] and we agreed to further promote rice exports to international markets to help stabilize food prices...
...need ever recorded in the agency's 57-year history - 10% more than in 2006 - and the upward trend is bound to continue. "We're worried about how the economic slowdown, rising food prices and climate change are creating a new pattern of forced displacement," Guterres, a former Portuguese Prime Minister who took the helm of the UNHCR in 2005, told TIME. "The number of people on the move will increase...
...Sarkozy and other E.U. leaders are now pinning hopes of salvaging the Treaty on another referendum, perhaps in a year's time. Officially, the bruised Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen was treated with sympathy at the Brussels summit, and there was universal recognition that the Irish vote had to be "respected". But behind the scenes, Cowen - tellingly banished to the far end of the family photograph of E.U. leaders - was alternately cajoled and bullied to run another vote...
...This fragile truce has at least one thing going for it: Both Olmert and Hamas need it. The Israeli Prime Minister, who is being investigated for possible corruption, needs to rebuild his image and thinks he can do it by halting the barrage of rockets fired into southern Israel. Hamas needs the truce because, after a year of hardship in Gaza, its public support is wearing thin...