Xinhua world news summary at 0000 GMT, May 18

May 17, 2012 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Barack Obama will meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Chicago on Sunday when the NATO summit there is due to start, a top White House official said on Thursday.

"Obviously it is an important meeting because a central focus of the NATO summit will be on Afghanistan and on Afghanistan's future," said Obama's National Security Advisor Tom Donilon at a White House briefing, referring to the meeting between the two.

(U.S.-Afghanistan-Ties) - - - - NEW YORK -- Moody's Investors Service on Thursday downgraded the long-term debt and deposit ratings for 16 Spanish banks and Santander UK PLC, a Britain-domiciled subsidiary of Banco Santander, as the banks' credit situation worsened and the government's ability to support the banks was impaired.

The rating agency cut one to three notches of the long-term debt and deposit ratings for the 16 Spanish banks and Santander UK PLC. Moody's said the main drivers of the downgrade action were adverse operating conditions, reduced credit-worthiness of the Spanish sovereign, rapid asset-quality deterioration and restricted market funding access. (U.S.-Spain-Banks) - - - - UNITED NATIONS -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon said here on Thursday that the world needs a new paradigm for dynamic growth which could provide stable economies, decent jobs and opportunities for all.

"Let us face the facts: the old model is broken. We need to create a new one -- a new model for dynamic growth," said Ban while addressing the UN General Assembly's high-level debate on The State of the World Economy and Finance and its Impact on Development. (UN-World Economy) - - - - MOSCOW -- Russia successfully sent a Cosmos- series military satellite into orbit on Thursday, spokesman of the Aerospace Defense Forces Col. Alexei Zolotukhin said.

According to Zolotukhin, the forces launched a Soyuz-U carrier rocket with the satellite Cosmos-2480 from the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia and the satellite separated from the rocket at 18:13 Moscow time (1413 GMT).

"The launch was carried out to expand the cluster of Russia's military satellites in orbit," the spokesman said.

(Russia-Satellite-Launch) - - - - WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Barack Obama decided on Thursday to extend for another year the sanctions on investment and trade with Myanmar, citing it continues to pose "an unusual and extraordinary threat" to the U.S. security and foreign policy.

While acknowledging "important strides" made by Myanmar's government in a number of areas, including releasing hundreds of political prisoners, pursuing cease-fire talks with several armed ethnic groups and pursuing a substantive dialogue with the leading pro-democracy opposition party, the U.S. government continues to have serious concerns about the human rights situation in Myanmar, Obama said in an executive order issued by the White House.

(U.S.-Myanmar-Sanctions)

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