At a conference on investing in non-performing loans in Milan last week, attendees were asked to vote on whether an Italian government scheme to help sell the debt was the “best way forward”. Just 3 per cent agreed. The response follows a year of wrangling over proposals to tackle the €360bn of problematic loans plaguing the balance sheets of Italian banks, which have lost half their stock […]
By Chiekh Sadibou Mane and Thierry Gouegnon | BANJUL BANJUL Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh, who once vowed to rule the tiny West African nation for “a billion years”, said he had accepted his shock election defeat on Friday, 22 years after seizing power in a coup. Voting on Thursday against Jammeh was a rare show of defiance against a leader who has ruled by decree and who […]
By Alastair Macdonald | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS Islamic State will attack Europe again, security chiefs warned on Friday, and may add car bombs, cyber and chemical warfare to its local arsenal as European militants drift home after reverses in Syria and Iraq. Gilles de Kerchove, the European Union’s Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, said it was impossible to know for sure how many militants were already in Europe plotting. A report […]
Britain’s new surveillance law would, among other measures, require websites to keep customer browsing history for up to a year and allow law enforcement access The British parliament this week gave the green light to new bulk surveillance powers for police and intelligence services that critics have denounced as the most far-reaching of any western democracy. The Investigatory Powers Bill would, among other measures, require websites to […]
By Matthias Inverardi and Harro Ten Wolde | FRANKFURT FRANKFURT Aixtron (AIXGn.DE) will have to take action to balance income and costs, including potential job cuts, if U.S. President Barack Obama blocks its takeover by China’s Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund (FGC). Shares in the German semiconductor equipment maker fell more than 5 percent on Friday following a report by Bloomberg, citing sources, that said Obama was […]
Symantec After four years of investigation, Europol, and other agencies have moved against the prominent Avalanche botnet platform which acted as a hub for malware campaigns worldwide. Europol publicly disclosed the operation on Thursday, made possible through partnerships with the FBI, the US Department of Justice (DoJ), the German Public Prosecutor’s Office Verden Eurojust and technology firms including Shadowserver and Symantec. Law enforcement agencies moved 30 November […]
Investors poured money into US equity funds and pulled it from European ones in a week dominated by hopes for an acceleration in US economic growth and anxiety over Italy’s referendum on constitutional reform this weekend. European equity funds lost $2bn in the week to November 30, according to data from EPFR, while US funds attracted $4.4bn. That takes the total inflow for US equity funds since […]
By Gavin Jones | ROME ROME With his political career on the line, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi launched a final day of campaigning on Friday ahead of a Dec. 4 referendum, saying Italy would be the strongest nation in Europe if he wins. Financial markets and Europe’s politicians fear victory for the opposition ‘No’ camp could trigger political instability and renewed turmoil for Italy’s battered banks, pushing […]
A head of steam for Italian government bond yields. There are no signs of jitters in the eurozone’s third largest debt market this morning in the last day of trading before the country votes in a closely-watched referendum this weekend. Italy’s 10-year bond yields have fallen by as much as 10 basis points this morning (0.1 percentage points) to 1.95 per cent, outperforming a wider rally in […]
Photo The fully-restored 3,800-year-old jug with a human statue that resembles Auguste Rodin’s “The Thinker,” which was found in Yehud, Israel. Credit Israel Antiquities Authority/Clara Amit European Pressphoto Agency Reading this article right now, you might resemble this 3,800-year old statue resting its cheek upon its hand. It’s a common pose for computer browsing, but a rare sight in Bronze Age pottery. A group of high […]
Since the Maltese Parliament and government have not taken concrete action on tax avoidance and evasion, even in light of the Panama affair, Alternattiva Demokratika said it hopes that EP inquiry will shed light where others have failed. Alternattiva Demokratika Chairperson, Prof. Arnold Cassola, said: “The European Parliament administration yesterday approved the request from the ‘Committee of Inquiry into Money Laundering, Tax Avoidance and […]
In late July, Moussa Aksar, the director of Niger’s L’Évènement newspaper, answered his phone and heard a familiar voice warning him that he was, once again, in danger. “Be careful,” a friendly source told Aksar. “Look out for yourself and be careful what you say on the phone.” Aksar had just published Niger’s first exposé from the Panama Papers, the investigation based on a leak of documents […]
Friday 06:00 GMT Overview Stock markets across Asia, oil and the dollar have all gone into reverse on Friday, while government bonds were mixed ahead of the release later today of closely-watched US jobs data. European bourses are expected to open lower with spreadbetters predicting the UK’s FTSE 100 will slip 40 points to 6,712 and Germany’s Dax to drop 55 points to 10,479. US index futures […]
Photo Poulet à la Normande Credit Gentl and Hyers for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Jerrie-Joy. “Ah, they are not rising!” Marianne Tober cried, in a near panic over her gougères. They weren’t just cheese puffs; they were her Burgundian birthright, well-salted dairy fat given airy form, and her mother’s recipe had never failed her before. But it was true: The gougères […]
The pound climbed to its highest level against the euro in almost three months after a rare public comment from the government on its strategy for leaving the EU, adding further momentum to the currency’s November rally. The pound was worth €1.1940 for the first time since September 7 after David Davis, so-called Brexit secretary, told MPs the UK would consider paying for access to the single […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Reporters have faced consequences both in nations where media crackdowns are common and also in nations with reputations for high levels of press freedom In late July, Moussa Aksar, the director of Niger’s L’Évènement newspaper, answered his phone and heard a familiar voice warning him that he was, once again, in danger. “Be careful,” a friendly source told Aksar. “Look out for yourself and be careful […]
By Alastair Macdonald and Gabriela Baczynska | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS The Dutch government has lent its weight to calls for the EU to freeze Turkey’s membership talks, diplomats said on Thursday, raising the prospect of European leaders making such a move at a summit in two weeks. A Dutch suggestion that the Union consider suspending the accession process for six months in protest at President Tayyip Erdogan’s crackdown […]
When it comes to very large numbers, it can be hard to get the right perspective. If you had to count it, a €40bn pile of cash would be somewhat daunting. Place it next to to the Italian national debt, however, and the pile becomes a pimple. The number matters because it was the amount the government proposed using to assist troubled financial institutions earlier this year. […]
By Cheikh Sadibou Mane | BANJUL BANJUL Gambians voted on Thursday in the first serious electoral challenge to President Yahya Jammeh, who has said only Allah can remove him from office and once claimed he would rule the tiny riverside West African nation for “a billion years”. Jammeh, who seized power in a 1994 coup, has made headlines by claiming to have a herbal cure for AIDS […]
The month that stunned investors with Donald Trump’s US election victory was a record-breaker in markets. The prospect of big tax cuts and fiscal spending from the incoming administration has stirred the market’s animal spirits, driving Wall Street into record territory, while bond prices have been hit hard by expectations of higher inflation. Here is how November played out in numbers: 13 — The dollar index — […]
By Crispian Balmer | ROME ROME A ‘No’ vote in Sunday’s referendum on constitutional reform would be a slap in the face to Europe, said the head of the rightist Northern League, pledging to pull Italy from the euro if he wins the next national elections. Matteo Salvini, who has said he would run for prime minister, has helped lead the campaign against the government’s planned overhaul […]
In a sign that investor enthusiasm about the Apple “rebound” may have been premature, Digitimes reports that Apple has begun to reduce orders for iPhone 7s as initial “sales momentum has started fading”, according to sources from Taiwan’s handset supply chain. The Digitimes sources said that initial shipment momentum of the iPhone 7 was in part driven by strong demand for the jet black iPhone 7 models […]
By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen | COPENHAGEN COPENHAGEN Maersk Line, the world’s biggest shipping company, is to buy smaller rival Hamburg Süd, joining a wave of M&A in the industry just over two months after the Danish company revealed plans to bolster its transport operations. The deal, announced by parent A.P. Moller-Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) on Thursday, is the group’s first full takeover in more than a decade and highlights a […]
ZURICH Swiss efforts to curb immigration from the European Union without provoking a clash with Brussels cleared another hurdle on Thursday when parliament’s upper house backed giving locals first crack at open jobs rather than adopting outright quotas. The step is roughly in line with a bill the lower house adopted in September, skirting a direct confrontation with the EU which has insisted on upholding the free […]
