SAN FRANCISCO — Financial services company American Express on Tuesday announced a 100 million-U.S. dollar investment plan to fund early stage digital commerce startups, as part of a multi-year initiative designed to help accelerate the company’s digital transformation.

In a press release, the company said that the digital commerce initiative will be managed out of its newly established office in Silicon Valley. Continue Reading

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan — A Russian Mars probe launched early Wednesday has failed to reach its intended orbit, Russia’s space agency was quoted as saying.

The abnormality occurred after the Phobos-Grunt probe had separated from the Zenit-2SB launch vehicle, which blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan at 2016 GMT Tuesday, the RIA Novosti news agency reported. Continue Reading

VIENNA, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) — Iran has engaged in activities relevant to the development of nuclear weapons, according to an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report obtained by media Tuesday.

In the latest report on Iran’s nuclear program, the UN nuclear watchdog listed a series of “credible” evidence that Iran was carrying out projects and experiments suspected of linking with a nuclear warhead design at least until 2010. Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, November 8 (Tantao News) – The top stories making headlines right now:

Europe:
Italy –Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi offered a conditional resignation on Tuesday, in that he step down but only after Parliament passes an austerity package demanded by the European Union.

Under Berlusconi’s offer, once he formally steps down, the President would then begin talks with various parliamentary leaders to decide whether to go to call for elections or try to form a new government with the existing political assembly.

There was no timetable as to Berlusconi’s conditional resignation offer. Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, November 7 (Tantao News) – The top stories making headlines right now:

Europe:
Athens – Greece will see the formation of a unity government under a new leader once current Prime Minister George Papandreou resigns. The new government will oversee the debt deal reached with the EU. Continue Reading

CANBERRA — Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard visited Australian troops and held talks with President Hamid Karzai during an unannounced visit to Afghanistan, national broadcasting network ABC News reported on Monday.

The visit came as Gillard was on her way home from the G20 leaders summit in France, and the trip was kept secret for security reasons. Continue Reading

ATHENS, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) — Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and main opposition leader Antonis Samaras reached an agreement on Sunday evening on a national unity government with a new prime minister, said a statement of the president’s office.

According to the statement issued after their meeting, which was hosted by President Karolos Papoulias, a new prime minister will be named on Monday, following further talks between Papandreou and Samaras.

“The new government shall lead the country to early general elections after the implementation of the October 26 EU agreement decisions,”said the statement.

ATHENS — The wide majority of Greek citizens prefers the forming of a national unity government rather than holding early general elections, according to the results of two opinion polls released on Saturday in Athens.

A 52 percent of respondents in the poll conducted for Greek newspaper “Proto Thema” (Top Story) Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, November 4 (Tantao News) – The top stories making headlines right now:

Europe:
France –World leaders attending the G-20 summit in Cannes demanded that the Euro Zone do more to manage its debt problem but offered no explicit support as the region’s fate was in its own hands.

After two days of talks that were dominated by the situation in Greece, the most concrete outcome was an agreement by Italy that the International Monetary Fund be allowed to conduct intense monitoring of that nation’s economy. Continue Reading

CANNES, France — Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday urged the world’s major economies to work together to promote growth and financial stability.

“It is imperative that we stand on a higher plane, transcend differences on specific issues, move beyond short-term considerations, and jointly seek ways to overcome the crisis and sustain development,” Hu told the Group of 20 (G20) summit here. Continue Reading

CANNES, France, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) — The most important task for the G20 leaders’ summit this year is to solve the financial crisis in Europe, U.S. President Barack Obama said here on Thursday morning.

Obama made the remarks in a joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy after arriving in the French resort city of Cannes to attend the two-day summit which will begin in the afternoon.

Sarkozy, whose country holds the G20 presidency this year, also urged the U.S. to play a leading role in contributing to the global economic growth as well as to the tackling of the eurozone debt crisis as it had been undermining global economic recovery.

The G20 summit which brings together leaders of the world’s major economies has been widely speculated to be dominated by the latest eurozone debt drama after Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou announced earlier this week to put the EU’s new round of bailout package to a referendum.

WASHINGTON, November 2 (Tantao News) – The top stories making headlines right now:

Europe:
Athens – The Greek cabinet gave its full support early Wednesday to Prime Minister George A. Papandreou for his surprise plan to call a referendum on the Greek financial crisis. This came as the government is on the verge of collapse.

The referendum threatens the ability of the country to adhere to the terms of a new deal with its foreign lenders and has caused financial turmoil in Europe. Continue Reading