Honours courses at Indian School of Business and Finance

The Indian School of Business and Finance (ISBF), one of the affiliate centres of the University of London, in association with the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), invites students to apply for its three-year full-time undergraduate honours degree programmes in B.Sc. Economics, B.Sc. Economics & Management and B.Sc. Business.

Applicants who have passed or appeared for the Class XII examination conducted by the CBSE or ISC may apply. Students, who have completed or are completing the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma or GSCE A-Levels, are also eligible to apply.

The applicants for this degree should have proficiency in both English and Mathematics. Candidates seeking to register for B.Sc. Economics need to have proof of competency in Mathematics (equivalent to Grade 12). For other programmes, candidates should be able to demonstrate ability in Mathematics (equivalent to Grade 10). Selections are made based on an entrance exam and personal interview. IB students with 30 credits or more may be exempt from the exam. The application forms may be downloaded from www.isbf.edu.in.

For further details, contact: 011405777033, 9971795613.

source:http://www.hindu.com/edu/2011/04/12/stories/2011041250070200.htm

IEA warns oil price rally may lead to global slowdown

The agency said preliminary data for January and February suggested that high oil prices may have started to dent demand growth.

Sky-high oil prices are beginning to dent oil demand growth, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday adding prices could ultimately moderate through a global economic slowdown.

“Most analysts see a more formal OPEC policy response as unlikely... That leaves a less palatable route to price moderation -- namely economic slow-down and weaker demand growth,” the agency said in its monthly report.

“There are real risks however that a sustained, $100 per barrel plus price environment will prove incompatible with the currently expected pace of economic recovery,” it added.

The agency said preliminary data for January and February suggested that high oil prices may have started to dent demand growth. It, however, kept its 2011 global oil demand growth forecast unchanged at 1.4 million barrels per day or 1.6%.

The IEA said tight global supply was its another major concern as the global oil output fell by around 0.7 million barrels per day in March to 88.27 million bpd due to civil war in Libya. OPEC crude supply fell by 0.88 million bpd alone.

“Hypothetically, if global supply were to chug along at March levels for the rest of 2011, OECD inventory could slip to near five-year lows by December,” it said.

However, the IEA said it believed OPEC spare capacity stood at a comfortable level of 3.91 million bpd, with Saudi Arabia accounting for 3.2 million alone.

source:http://www.livemint.com/2011/04/12135952/IEA-warns-oil-price-rally-may.html

Ivory Coast: 'Gbagbo weapons cache' uncovered

Several generals pledged their allegiance to Alassane Ouattara on Tuesday

French troops have discovered several large arms caches in Ivory Coast that they said would have been used by former Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo.

The weapons, stored at villas in the main city of Abidjan, included mortars, cannons and rockets.

Mr Gbagbo is reportedly being held under house arrest in Abidjan.

French forces led an assault against him on Monday to force him from power. He had refused to accept defeat in a November election.

His rival in last year's election, Alassane Ouattara, who was internationally recognised as winning the poll, has now taken power.

During the stand-off between Mr Gbagbo and Mr Ouattara about 1,500 people were killed and a million forced from their homes.

The BBC's Mark Doyle says the French army took journalists to three innocent-looking villas in central Abidjan where they had discovered the weapons.

He says there were enough arms there to launch a new war, more evidence that the dispute over last year's polls were leading the country into chaos.

The French troops documented the arms before handing them over to African UN soldiers for safe disposal.

Earlier, five generals who had remained loyal to Mr Gbagbo pledged allegiance to Mr Ouattara, though there are reports that some soldiers and militiamen have refused to surrender.Risk of reprisals

US President Barack Obama has called Mr Ouattara to congratulate him and offer support as Ivory Coast tries to recover from the recent conflict.

Mr Ouattara's government said Mr Gbagbo had been placed under house arrest, without saying where, AFP news agency reported.

"Pending the opening of a judicial inquiry, Mr Laurent Gbagbo and some of his companions have been placed under house arrest," said Justice Minister Jeannot Ahoussou-Kouadio.

There had been confusion about Mr Gbagbo's whereabouts, with the UN retracting an earlier claim that he had been moved out of Abidjan.

Immediately after his arrest Mr Gbagbo had been taken with his wife Simone to Mr Ouattara's headquarters at Abidjan's Golf Hotel.

Mr Ouattara has promised that Mr Gbagbo will not be harmed, but rather "treated with dignity".

He has appealed for calm, and announced that a truth and reconciliation commission will be set up to "shed light on all the massacres, crimes, and all cases of human rights violation".

Both sides have been accused of atrocities.

Troops loyal to Mr Ouattara also began patrolling the streets of the southern city on Tuesday in an attempt to restore order. Despite their presence, sporadic gun and mortar fire was heard.

International human rights group Amnesty International warned that those seen as supporters of Mr Gbagbo were at risk of violent reprisals, despite Mr Ouattara appeals.

"Today in Abidjan, armed men, some wearing military uniforms, have been conducting house-to-house searches in neighbourhoods where real or perceived supporters of Laurent Gbagbo are living," the group said.

It quoted one witness saying he had seen a policeman belonging to Mr Gbagbo's ethnic group being dragged from his house and shot at point blank range.

Until a 2002 rebellion split the country in two, Ivory Coast - the world's largest cocoa producer - was the most developed economy in West Africa.

source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13058331

Egypt's Hosni Mubarak in hospital after 'heart attack'

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is in intensive care after suffering a heart attack, say state media.

He was taken ill while meeting prosecutors investigating the killing of hundreds of protesters and allegations of corruption, reports say.

The manager of the hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh said Mr Mubarak's condition was "almost stable".

Mr Mubarak, 82, stood down on 11 February following an 18-day popular uprising against his rule.

State TV quotes medical sources as saying that Mr Mubarak, had refused to eat or drink since being summoned by the public prosecutor on Sunday.

Mr Mubarak's two sons, Alaa and Gamal, are also under investigation and are being questioned at the prosecutor's office in al-Tor in South Sinai governorate, where the former president is said to have been when he suffered the reported medical emergency.Scuffles

"There is a state of confusion inside the hospital and only patients are allowed in," Ashraf Swaylam, a news reporter for the state-run station Nile TV, said earlier.

The hospital was accepting no patients except for emergency cases, another local media report said.

Protesters picketed the hospital, denouncing the president and carrying a sign reading "Here is the butcher", AP news agency reported. They scuffled with supporters of Mr Mubarak.

Mr Mubarak underwent gall bladder surgery in the German city of Heidelberg last year and there were reports that he had remained in poor health, although his aides had denied this.

A BBC correspondent says it is understood that the former president's doctors had asked Egypt's ruling military council for permission to send him back to Germany for treatment, but that this was refused.

Mr Mubarak has been banned from leaving the country, along with his sons and their wives, and the family's assets have been frozen.

In a pre-recorded audio message on Sunday, he broke his silence of the last two months to say his reputation and that of his sons had been damaged and he would work to clear their names.Square cleared

Correspondents say he has been keeping a low profile in Sharm el-Sheikh, a Red Sea resort, after fleeing to his holiday villa there when he was overthrown.

In a separate development, soldiers and police are said to have ended a five-day occupation of Cairo's Tahrir Square by hundreds of protesters.

They had been demanding civilian rule and swifter prosecution of disgraced former officials, principally Mr Mubarak.

There were clashes on the first night of the occupation and tensions had remained high.

source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13053376