News

November 3, 2008

International News Briefs

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Sunday he is confident that Saudi Arabia will contribute to the International Monetary Fund’s bailout reserves after he promised business leaders in the Gulf that they would have a say in any future new world economic order.

Brown is using a four-day tour of the Gulf to call on oil-rich Middle Eastern countries to be among the biggest donors to the IMF’s coffers to rescue failing nations, which at $250 billion have already been depleted by emergency cash calls from Iceland, Hungary and the Ukraine totaling some $30 billion.

But analysts have argued that Gulf states will feel little impetus to bolster the IMF fund, given its domination by the United States and the G7 industrialized nations.

SEATTLE

Boeing back to work

Factories at Boeing Co. are due to start humming again Sunday after Machinists union members voted to end a costly eight-week strike that clipped profits and stalled deliveries by the world’s No. 2 commercial airplane maker.

Workers are expected to return Sunday night to Boeing’s commercial airplane factories, which have been closed since the Sept. 6 walkout.

The strike cost an estimated $100 million a day in deferred revenue and production delays on the company’s highly anticipated next-generation passenger jet.

Machinists union members ended their walkout on Saturday by ratifying a new contract with Boeing.

CHICAGO

7 wounded in drive-by

Police in Chicago say seven people were wounded in an early morning drive-by shooting outside a club on the city’s West Side.

Police say they don’t know what the motive was in the shooting early Sunday and no one is in custody.

Police spokesman Dan O’Brien says three people are hospitalized in critical condition and four are listed in good condition.

Officers say the seven victims were leaving a social club when someone in a passing van opened fire around 4:45 a.m.

Investigators were seeking to determine if any surveillance camera footage is available from the club.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan

Suicide attack kills 8

The Pakistani army’s chief spokesman says a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into a group of paramilitary officers in a volatile region near the Afghan border, killing at least eight troops.

Sunday’s attack occurred in a tribal region considered a haven for al-Qaida and Taliban-linked militants.

U.S. anti-terror ally Pakistan has deployed security forces throughout its northwest to tamp down on growing militancy.

The troops have been frequent targets of attacks.

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