Russian President Vladimir Putin has granted citizenship to Gerard Depardieu, the French movie star who quit his homeland to avoid a tax hike on the rich, the Kremlin said on Thursday. The "Cyrano de Bergerac" star moved across the border to Belgium last year to avoid the tax increase planned by Socialist President Francois Hollande
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Turkey's former armed forces chief was detained on Thursday in an investigation into the military's role in pushing the country's first Islamist-led government out of power in 1997, local media reported. Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, who pioneered Islamist politics in Turkey, resigned in June 1997, months after the military-dominated National Security Council warned him over
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Britain's FTSE 100 consolidated recent gains early on Thursday after it had smashed through the 6,000 level for the first time in 17 months in the previous session. By 0851 GMT, London's blue-chip index was up 0.54 of a point at 6,027.91. It hit its highest level since July 2011 on Wednesday after the United
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Hong Kong shares climbed to a second-successive 19-month high, as investors chased Chinese property stocks and growth-sensitive laggards after more positive economic data affirmed the recovery trend in China. On Wednesday and Thursday combined, turnover was $22.1 billion, the highest for any year's first two trading days. The Hang Seng Index ended up 0.4% at
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Argentine President Cristina Fernandez De Kirchner called for talks with Britain over the disputed Falkland Islands in an open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron published in British newspapers on Thursday. Britain and Argentina fought a 10-week war in 1982 over the remote South Atlantic islands, which are part of Britain's self-governing overseas territories. Fernandez
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Life in Egypt is about to get harder for ordinary people who will bear the brunt of inflation caused by a decline in the value of their currency. As elections approach, President Mohamed Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood may pay a political price. After a 3.2% slide in the Egyptian pound's value against the dollar this week,
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The father of an Indian student whose gang rape and death sparked public outrage against the government has demanded that those responsible be hanged and he called for new legislation on sex crimes to be named in honour of his daughter. The Dec. 16 attack on the 23-year-old physiotherapy student and a male companion provoked
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German regulator BaFin has written to auditors and banks asking them to scrutinise their exposure to shipping loans as they prepare annual earnings reports for 2012, four financial sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The formal request was made in a letter sent late last year, shortly before Hamburg-based HSH Nordbank said it
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Cyprus apologised to the Egyptian ambassador on Wednesday after a fracas with police over security screening of her footwear at the island's main airport in Larnaca. Egyptian ambassador Menha Mahrous Bakhoum was involved in an argument with police when she was asked to undergo security checks to enter the departure terminal on December 29, where she
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Cyprus Popular Bank, the island’s second largest lender, expects reduced after-tax losses for 2012 compared with its record loss in 2011, it said in a stock exchange filing. In an announcement dated December 31 but released on Wednesday, the nationalised bank said lower losses were anticipated from reduced impairment charges on Greek government bonds and
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