AP - Two boats capsized over the weekend in separate incidents on Congo's vast rivers, leaving 70 people dead and 200 others feared dead, and both vessels were heavily loaded and operating with few safety measures, officials said Sunday.
OneWorld.net - JOHANNESBURG, Sep 3 (PlusNews) - A new, accurate, easy-to-use test can
diagnose tuberculosis (TB) - including drug-resistant strains of the
disease - in less than two hours. It has the potential to save thousands
of lives in developing countries, where current tests are often
unreliable, take weeks to process, or are simply unavailable.
AFP - More than a dozen vehicles including three fuel tankers and two mini-buses caught fire Sunday in a pile-up on a Nigerian highway, site of a deadly multi-car crash three weeks ago, an AFP photographer reported.
AP - Torrential rains from a tropical depression caused landslides that have killed at least 38 people in Guatemala — some of them rescuers trying to save people already buried under a wall of mud.
AFP - Acclaimed Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa made a brief comeback on Sunday after surgery and several months of treatment for esophagus cancer, according to concert organisers.
AP - Days after the U.S. officially ended combat operations and touted Iraq's ability to defend itself, American troops found themselves battling heavily armed militants assaulting an Iraqi military headquarters in the center of Baghdad on Sunday. The fighting killed 12 people and wounded dozens.
Reuters - The U.S. economy appears to be trudging along, neither booming nor busting, growing steadily enough to diminish double-dip recession fears but not quickly enough to bring down unemployment.
Reuters - Debt levels that ran up ahead of the financial crisis have shown only a modest decline since and are likely to fall sharply in the coming years, a study said.
Time.com - As the scandal surrounding the L'OrÉal billions further entwines Eric Woerth, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's support for his labor minister could cost him the next election
Time.com - The public mixing of the genders is leading to enormous tension and fear that violence may break out as men try to defend conservative ideas of honor
AP - Authorities have detained an alleged smuggler of an Ecuadorean man who told police he survived a massacre of 72 fellow migrants in Mexico, the justice minister confirmed Sunday.
AP - The armed Basque separatist group ETA, under pressure from political allies to renounce violence and decapitated repeatedly by the arrests of its leaders, announced another cease-fire Sunday, suggesting it might turn to a political process in its quest for an independent homeland.
CQPolitics.com - Leading voices in both parties sparred Sunday over the state of the economy and the role that Bush tax cuts should play in the recovery.
AP - Investigators looking into what went wrong in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill are a step closer to answers now that a key piece of evidence is secure aboard a ship.
Reuters - The U.S. government is likely to take a loss on General Motors Co in the first offering of the automaker's stock, six people familiar with preparations for the landmark IPO said.
AP - The powerful earthquake that smashed buildings, cracked roads and twisted rail lines around the New Zealand city of Christchurch also ripped a new fault line in the Earth's surface, a geologist said Sunday.
AFP - Japan's top minicar maker Suzuki Motor Corp. is to build a new auto assembly plant near the Indian capital New Delhi in a bid to meet growing demand in the country, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
Reuters - The world economy is recovering moderately but still faces challenges such as the need for medium-term fiscal consolidation, the IMF's First Managing Director, John Lipsky, said on Sunday.
Reuters - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has approved a $690 million payment to French retailer Casino and other owners of a supermarket chain nationalized earlier this year, state media said on Saturday.
AP - Unemployment is stuck at high levels even though some companies are hiring. The problem, government data show, is that too few jobs are being created for the growing number of people looking for work.
Reuters - Chinese officials have ordered state companies to meet investment bankers to explore ways to block BHP Billiton's $39 billion bid for Potash Corp, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.
Reuters - Hipster brand American Apparel Inc is in talks to bring in an outside restructuring firm as the manufacturer and retailer struggles to fix its flagging operations, sources told Reuters on Friday.
McClatchy Newspapers - JERUSALEM — Jewish settlers across the West Bank have vowed to begin construction in more than 60 locations, posing a direct challenge to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he returned home from Thursday's first round of direct peace talks in Washington.
AFP - Brazil's Petrobras unveiled one of the world's biggest share offerings Friday, a sale of up to 64 billion dollars in new stock to finance oil exploration aimed at turning Brazil into a leading oil exporter of the 21st century.
AP - Summer is rarely a hot sales season for Campbell Soup Co., and this year's sweltering June and July made that even more true, but the company said Friday that cost-cutting and strong drink sales helped its net income climb.
Reuters - Wall Street closed a stellar week on Friday after recent economic data, including a stronger-than-expected labor market report, bolstered optimism that the economy would not fall back into recession.
AP - Private mortgage insurer Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. said Friday it added $1.2 billion in new primary insurance coverage in August and the number of delinquent loans it insures declined.
The Christian Science Monitor - North Koreaâs leader Kim Jong-il is expected to convene the first high-level conference of the ruling Workersâ Party in about 40 years amid widespread speculation that the world will finally get the answer to one great question:
BusinessWeek - Goldman Sachs may not have a lot of friends in the White House these days, but one of its former employees has made a good impression. After three years as an analyst in Goldman's fixed-income, currencies, and commodities division, Monique Pean began her own jewelry line that can now be found in Barneys, Jeffrey New York, and around the neck of Michelle Obama.
AP - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that while the fight against corruption must be led by Afghans, the U.S. is working on new ways to prevent millions of American dollars flowing into the nation from underwriting bribery and graft.