News in English

8. April 2017, 21:58

IMF warns of consequences of US crisis

As the stand-off between Democrats and Republicans over the budget continues in the US, President Barack Obama has put pressure on Republican leaders to agree to lift the debt ceiling. He says he's open to talks if they agree to end the current partial government shut-down. The Republican leader in the House of Representatives, John Boehner, has also spoken about the need for negotiation but said something needed to be done to curb government spending. Meanwhile, the chief economist at the IMF, Olivier Blanchard, has warned of serious consequences if there's no agreement: "if the debt ceiling is not lifted, it could well be that what is now a recovery could turn into a recession or even worse."

Janet Yellen to head US central bank

Staying with the US economy, White House officials say President Barack Obama is to nominate Janet Yellen to be the next head of the US central bank. If confirmed by the Senate, she would replace Ben Bernanke. Yellen has been Bernanke's deputy for the last two years.

Haiti cholera victims file claim against UN

Victims of a cholera epidemic in Haiti are filing a multi-billion dollar compensation claim against the United Nations at a court in New York. Lawyers representing the families of over 8,000 people who died, and hundreds of thousands of people who fell ill, say UN peacekeepers inadvertently introduced cholera into Haiti in 2010. Beatrice Lindstrom is from the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti: "we think that it's critical that in accordance with the law that those families be compensated for the loss of their bread-winners. We are working with families who've had to pull their children out of school because they can no longer pay for the schooling fees after the bread-winners in their families died." The United Nations says it has legal immunity from such compensation claims.

Green light for Austrian coalition talks

Austrian President Heinz Fischer has given the go-ahead for Chancellor and Social Democrat leader Werner Faymann to start the process of forming a new government. The move comes 10 days after the general election which saw the Social Democrats and People's Party hanging on to their parliamentary majority.

Nobel Prize for Chemistry awarded

And the Nobel Prize for Chemistry has been awarded to the Vienna-born US scientist Martin Karplus, and his two American colleagues Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel. They were honoured for their work in laying the foundation for computer models that are used to understand and predict chemical processes such as photosynthesis

The weather

This afternoon's weather outlook: mild but mostly overcast with some showers, especially in the mountains. A few sunny periods also forecast south of the Alpine ridge and in the East. Highs ranging between 10 and 18 degrees.

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