Dec 1st, 2012
PARIS (Reuters) – French trade unions accused President Francois Hollande of betrayal on Saturday after his government backed away from a threat to nationalize ArcelorMittal’s Florange steelworks.
The Socialist government said on Friday it had won promises from ArcelorMittal to avoid forced redundancies and inject 180 million euros to develop the Florange plant, meaning it would no longer have to take...
Nov 26th, 2012
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund began their third attempt in as many weeks to release emergency aid for Greece on Monday, with policymakers saying a write-down of Greek debt is off the table for now.
Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras voiced confidence the ministers would finally reach a deal after Greece had fulfilled it’s part of the deal by...
Nov 24th, 2012
CAIRO (Reuters) – Angry youths hurled rocks at security forces and burned a police truck as thousands gathered in central Cairo to protest at Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi’s decision to grab sweeping new powers.
Police fired tear gas near Tahrir Square, heart of the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak at the height of the Arab Spring. Thousands demanded that Mursi should quit and accused him of...
Nov 20th, 2012
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The U.N. chief called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton headed to the region with a message that escalation of the week-long conflict was in nobody’s interest.
Nevertheless, Palestinian rocket fire and Israeli air strikes continued for a seventh day.
Hamas militants said they fired 16 missiles at the southern...
Nov 15th, 2012
LONDON (AP) — The 17-country eurozone has fallen back into recession for the first time in three years as the fallout from the region’s financial crisis was felt from Amsterdam to Athens.
And with surveys pointing to increasingly depressed conditions across the 17-member group that uses the euro at a time of high unemployment in many countries, there are fears that the recession will deepen, and make the...
Nov 10th, 2012
BEIJING (Reuters) – China announced on Saturday that it is effectively turning the corner on the economy and likely to meet its growth target for the year, more good news for Communist Party policy makers meeting in Beijing to anoint new leaders for the next decade.
The world’s second-biggest economy had halted a slowing trend, the chief of the economic planning agency said, adding that he was...
Oct 27th, 2012
ROME (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of people marched through Rome in a “No Monti Day” on Saturday, some throwing eggs and spraying graffiti to protest against austerity measures introduced by Prime Minister Mario Monti’s government.
Appointed in November when Italy risked being sucked into the euro zone debt crisis, Monti has pushed through painful austerity measures to cut the...
Oct 20th, 2012
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Saturday he suspected the assassination of a senior Lebanese intelligence chief was linked to his role in uncovering Syrian involvement in an earlier bomb plot.
As fear and anger gripped Lebanon over Friday’s car bomb attack, Mikati also said the president had asked him to stay in his post despite his offer to resign and make way for a national...
