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The Berlin Wall came down 20 years ago and in that time the world game has opened its arms to a tidal wave of talent from behind the former Iron Curtain. Here, Football Fanzone picks the 11 finest footballers to emerge from the old Eastern Bloc since 1989
To what extent has the outcome of today’s meeting of 19 leading economies and the European Union already been agreed? That’s the $2 trillion question. The sum is the proposed level of fiscal stimulus by G-20 nations identified in an early leaked draft of the final communiqué expected later today.
After the pageantry and splendor of audiences with the Queen and dinner at Downing Street, G-20 leaders could be forgiven a sense of anti-climax as they arrived for work Thursday for a summit heralding a "new era of international partnership," according to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday he believed world leaders would "rise to the challenge" at this week’s G-20 summit by agreeing firm measures to set about tackling the global financial crisis. Brown, who hosts Thursday’s meeting in London, has spent the past few weeks courting a succession of world leaders in a bid to persuade them to sign up to a package of proposals he has described as a “global new deal,” including tighter financial regulations and further government stimulus measures. But other leaders have distanced themselves from Brown’s agenda, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel apparently speaking for other European leaders when she expressed skepticism this weekend about the wisdom of pouring further public money into economies already in recession
Pirates have hijacked two European-owned chemical tankers off the coast of Somalia in the past 24 hours, the European Union Maritime Security Center said Thursday. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will represent the United States at the United Nations meeting Tuesday in The Hague, the State Department said earlier. It is not clear who Iran will send to the conference.
The Czech prime minister, whose country holds the rotating European Union presidency, said Wednesday the U.S.
Top executives of leading international banks were meeting the British prime minister and treasury chief Tuesday to discuss kick-starting the global financial system ahead of next month’s G-20 summit. About a dozen representatives of U.S., Japanese, German and South African banks were at Downing Street to meet with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling, a spokesman for the Treasury said.
Following a dramatic fall through the 20th century, the U.S. infant mortality rate — the proportion of babies who die before they reach their first birthday — has leveled off at just under seven deaths per 1,000 live births. That’s a much higher rate than in other parts of the developed world.
A Liverpool court dropped an assault charge against English football star Steven Gerrard for a nightclub brawl in December but ordered him to appear at trial next month, a court spokeswoman said Friday. England international Gerrard, who plays for Liverpool in the Premier League, still faces a charge of affray for the brawl, said Joe-Ann Forrest, a spokeswoman for North Sefton Magistrates Court in Liverpool. He will go on trial on April 3 along with six other men involved in the incident, she said.
Opposition lawmakers Tuesday ridiculed President Nicolas Sarkozy for taking France back into NATO’s military command after more than 40 years, but were unable to stop the move when it came to a vote. The National Assembly voted in favor of Sarkozy’s plan, 329-238. Socialist Laurent Fabius, a former prime minister, told Prime Minister Francois Fillon: “You tell us this would mean more independence and more influence.