A three-day disruption to BlackBerry services spread to North America on Wednesday, frustrating users of the Research In Motion devices just two days before rival Apple's new iPhone 4S goes on sale. RIM advised clients of an outage in the Americas and said it was working to restore services as customers in Europe, the
More
Gulf Air has taken delivery of its first A330-200 retrofitted with Panasonic Avionics’ Global Communications Suite. The ‘Sky Hub’ offers onboard full broadband connectivity to access Internet, mobile phone services and a global, live television service and will gradually be installed across Gulf Air’s entire fleet. The ‘Sky Hub’ includes high speed Wi-Fi , voice
More
Cyprus urgently needs to contain its public sector wages and freeze all other benefits as it faces a negative growth rate of minus 1% next year, contracting from the flat rate projected for this year, IMF officials said on Wednesday. Furthermore, a potential facility of 2.5 bln euros from Russia, repayable in four years, will
More
* May need to raise 100 bln; 48 banks could fail stress test * Europe's banks will have to achieve a significantly stronger capital position under a quick-fire regulatory health check and may need to raise some 100 bln euros, banking and regulatory sources said on Tuesday. The European Banking Authority (EBA) wants banks to
More
Greece sold 1.3 bln euros of six-month debt on Tuesday to help offset the cost of T-bills maturing this month, paying lenders slightly more than at a similar auction in September. Shut out of bond markets, debt-choked Greece only carries out monthly short-term debt auctions to refinance maturing T-bills. Tuesday's 1.3 bln euro issue, which
More
* Troika says Greece slow on reforms, privatisations * EU, IMF and ECB inspectors gave tepid approval for a vital aid tranche to Greece on Tuesday, saying that despite some fiscal progress Athens was lagging on privatisations and structural reforms needed to exit its debt crisis. Known as the troika, the inspectors said in
More
The captain of a stricken container ship wedged on a reef off a New Zealand holiday spot appeared in court on Wednesday as fear grew the vessel may break up spewing more fuel-oil on to beaches in the country's worst environmental disaster in decades. The 47,230-tonne Liberian-flagged Rena has been stranded on a reef 12
More
Australia's government may have to delay plans for the world's toughest anti-tobacco laws after conservative opposition lawmakers on Wednesday postponed a final vote on the controversial legislation in parliament. The new laws, which will force cigarettes to be sold in plain packaging from 2012, are being closely watched by New Zealand, Canada, the European Union
More
The U.S. State Department late on Tuesday issued a worldwide travel alert for U.S. ciitizens, warning of of the potential for anti-U.S. action after the United States accused Iran of backing a plot to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington. "The U.S. government assesses that this Iranian-backed plan to assassinate the Saudi ambassador may indicate
More
Workers at the Greece's biggest refiner Hellenic Petroleum decided late on Tuesday to suspend a strike which has disrupted fuel supplies after receiving government assurances they would be exempt from planned public sector wage cuts. Workers at the state-controlled group walked off the job on Tuesday and were expected to shut down all the firm's
More