Prime Minister Erdogan has mooted restoring the death penalty and introducing a presidential system of government as the 2014 election looms nearer and he looks to boost Turkey’s status as a regional power.   A decade after Ankara abolished capital punishment as part of reforms aimed at EU membership; Recep Erdogan has said Turkey should

The three teams of Troika technocrats from international lenders wrapped up their meetings on Tuesday with all-day talks at the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank where they discussed fiscal and macroeconomic issues, as well as the restructuring of semi-governmental organisations. Troika technocrats insist that the island’s Cooperative banks should consolidate to just 30,

Diabetes is running at record levels worldwide and half the people estimated to have the disease are, as yet, undiagnosed, according to a report on Wednesday. The number of people living with diabetes is now put at 371 million, up from 366 million a year ago, with numbers expected to reach 552 million by 2030,

President Francois Hollande, grappling a sickly economy and dismal ratings, vowed to make France more competitive and urged voters to judge him on his long-term success in reviving growth and jobs, not on short-term mood swings. In his first formal news conference after six months in office, the Socialist leader asked to be measured by

Plastic card spending fell by 7% over the year earlier to EUR 173,489,697 (EUR 173.5 mln) in October, according to the card company JCC Payment Systems Ltd. Spending for the first ten months was up, however, by 5% to EUR 1.86 bln, partly owing to an increase in government services available online. The average spend

On the basis of provisional data for September the trade deficit shrank by 10.6% over the year earlier in the first nine months of the year, reaching EUR 3.25 bln in January-September, compared with EUR 3.72 bln in January-September 2011. A shrinking trade deficit is often a sign of recession as demand for consumer goods,

The number of building permits authorised by the municipal authorities and the district administration offices fell by 0.2% over the year earlier in August 2012 to reach 477. However, the total value of these permits rose over the year earlier by 10.6% to EUR 125.7 mln. Since the area fell by 24.9% to 97,744 square