Monday, February 03, 2014

Growing wealth gap 'reaching point of hurting society'

THE Obama administration has devoted countless campaigns and speeches, and political muscle to the issue of income inequality, but the gap between the very rich and everyone else continues to grow.
In his latest State of the Union address last week, United States President Barack Obama noted that "today, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged".

Real gap 'may be even greater'

IT SHOULD have been a proud moment for China. On Jan 20, Beijing announced that its rich-poor gap had narrowed last year to the lowest level in a decade.
On top of this, farmers' incomes were growing faster those of city-dwellers, while the relatively undeveloped central and western areas of the country were catching up with prosperous eastern regions, senior official Ma Jiantang disclosed at a press briefing on China's 2013 economic performance.

Danger of globalisation backlash growing

German leaders want more robust foreign policy

MUNICH - German leaders are pushing a vigorous new case that it is time for their nation to find a more muscular voice in foreign affairs, even suggesting that Germany should no longer reflexively avoid some military deployments, as it did in Libya almost three years ago.

Sunday, February 02, 2014

Checkpoint breach raises vital questions

There are too many questions about how such a security breach could have occurred, raising concerns regarding the competence and alertness of the officers involved.