PARIS - FRANCE plans to include happiness and well-being in its measurements of economic progress, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday, beckoning other countries to join in a 'revolution' in the way growth is tracked after the global economic crisis.
France will adapt its statistical toolbox as recommended by two Nobel economists whom Mr Sarkozy commissioned 18 months ago to analyse new ways of measuring social progress, he said in a speech in Paris on the first anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
BEIJING - BEIJING filed a World Trade Organisation complaint on Monday over new US tariffs on Chinese tires, stepping up pressure on Washington in the latest in a series of trade disputes.
The conflict is a potential irritant as Washington and Beijing prepare for a summit of the Group of 20 leading economies in Pittsburgh on Sept 24-25 to discuss efforts to end the worst global downturn since the 1930s.
KARACHI - A STAMPEDE killed 18 women and children when charity workers handed out free flour to the needy in a crowded neighbourhood of Pakistan's financial capital Karachi on Monday, police said.
'We have talked to the officials in city hospitals who have confirmed to us that at least 18 women and children have died in the stampede and dozens others have been injured,' Karachi city police chief Wasim Ahmed told reporters.
BEIJING - A US decision to impose special duties on Chinese tyres could open the door to a host of trade complaints against Chinese products, creating tensions as Western nations seek Beijing's support at the G-20 meeting.
China responded swiftly to US President Barack Obama's announcement of safeguard duties on tyre imports from China on Friday, saying it may complain to the World Trade Organisation and then announcing its own anti-dumping investigations of motor vehicles and chicken products from the United States.
