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MEXICO CITY China will continue to buoy the global economy even if the Asian giant’s growth stabilizes at current levels of 7-8 percent a year, Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said on Sunday. Swan, in Mexico to attend meetings of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers, said a lack of growth was weighing on the global outlook and urged policymakers to act swiftly to fix problems. But he said China’s slowdown from breakneck growth rates of more than 14 percent in mid-2007 to an expected 7.5 percent this year had been misrepresented. “Much of the discussion about the growth [...]

The Treasury Department on Friday targeted Hizballah, a Shiite military and political organization, for potential fresh sanctions for providing support for the Syrian government. In a statement Treasury said that Hizballah is playing an “integral role in the continued violence the Assad regime is inflicting on the Syrian population.” The executive order would restrict U.S. citizens from dealing with the group and freezing any of its assets in the United States. The sanctions have little practical impact as Hizballah has been subject to sanctions since 1995 when it was designated as a global terrorist organization.