Anger as major British train deal goes to Japan

LONDON: A British decision to award a 7.5 billion pound (10.9 billion dollar, 8.4 billion euro) order for trains to a Japanese-led group sparked anger Friday amid rising unemployment and recession here.

Agility Trains, a consortium including Japan’s Hitachi, Britain’s John Laing and Barclays banking group, was awarded the contract on Thursday for a fleet of “super express” trains for the Great Western and East Coast main lines. It beat a rival group Express Rail Alliance, comprising Bombardier Transportation, Siemens, Angel Trains and Babcock & Brown, which said it was “extremely disappointed” after spending 18 months on its bid.

“Fury as Japan gets our jobs,” ran the front-page headline of the Daily Express, which highlighted the contrast with Prime Minister, Gordon Brown’s controversial pledge to protect “British jobs for British workers.”

source : jang.com.pk

G7 powers head to Rome as crisis rages

ROME: G7 finance ministers headed to Rome to discuss the global economic crisis on Friday with a warning from Germany that the world could be plunged back into the dark days of the 1930s, if governments resorted to protectionism.

The G7 industrialised economic powers, all in recession, are under pressure to prove they can work together to stop the rot rather than engaging in a battle of “beggar-thy-neighbour”, and Berlin made it clear the latter was an increasingly real risk. “We will have to do everything to ensure history does not repeat itself,” German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck told parliament a few hours ahead of the Rome meeting.

“Right now, I think Germany has a huge interest in ensuring, at international meetings, that the world does not make the same mistakes it made in the 1930s.” He cited the “buy American” clause in an economic stimulus package the U.S. Congress is due to vote on just as the finance ministers of the G7 powers — the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada — meet over dinner in Rome.

source : jang.com.pk

US urges nations to battle global recession

WASHINGTON: The United States called for swift action to rescue the crisis-hit global economy as Japan and the European Union issued appeals Tuesday against protectionist measures.

US President Barack Obama warned lawmakers of a "catastrophe" if they do not quickly pass a massive 838-billion-dollar stimulus package stuttering its way through Congress.

As America's dire economic plight cast a dark shadow, South Korea predicted further job losses and a shrinking domestic economy, while activity continued to weaken in China, which sank further toward deflation.

Obama's comments came with the Treasury set to unveil a plan later Tuesday to boost financial confidence and restore credit flows. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner earlier called on other Group of Seven finance ministers to act "promptly to restore health to the global economy." Geithner and finance ministers from the G7 group of industrialised nations -- the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada -- are to meet Friday in Rome as governments redouble their efforts against a global recession.