. The Risk Watch Column By Dr Alan Waring In the previous two Risk Watch articles in the Financial Mirror (‘A Gamble that Cost Lives’ and ‘Mari-Vassilikos Disaster: More Troubling Questions’), I outlined a number of key principles applicable to major hazard sites as well as the requirements of the EU Major Hazards Directive (the
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. By Shavasb Bohdjalian The euro gained in value and the dollar retreated following a breakthrough in negotiations to raise the US debt ceiling and avoid a default. It is remarkable how both the EU and the US wait until the last minute and at the 11th hour solve problems that should have been settled
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. Imagine putting on your skis and getting ready to go down the North Face slope at Troodos, only to discover after you take off that there is no snow, but only the jagged rocks sticking out of the ground and dry broken branches poking in your sides. This is probably the best way to
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Cyprus does not need to enter the EU support mechanism for the time being, new Finance Minister Kikis Kazamias said on Friday. Speaking to the press, after the new cabinet was sworn in, Kazamias said that “there is no such issue at the moment.” Asked whether Cyprus might be faced with this threat in a
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Cyprus president Demetris Christofias has appointed his close aide and former communist lawmaker Kikis Kazamias as the new finance minister in a cabinet overhaul aimed at propping up popular support amid a major economic crisis and the worst disaster that has pushed the island to regular brown-outs. Kazamias, a former MP for the Akel party
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The Swiss franc hit a fresh record high against the euro while the Aussie fell in early Asian trade on Friday as mounting fear of an economic quagmire in the United States and Europe prompted investors to dump risky assets and seek shelter in safe-haven currencies. A strongly risk-averse mood after a massive fall in
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U.S. crude fell below $86 on Friday, heading for its biggest weekly drop since early May, as fears of a global economic slowdown drive investors to the exits in a commodities sell-off that has erased the benchmark's 2011 price gains. Brent has dropped by nearly 9% and U.S. oil by about 10% this week as
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Allianz missed expectations with a 8.2% drop in net profit in the second quarter, hurt by a writedown on its Greek government debt. Quarterly net profit after minorities was 1 bln euros ($1.43 bln), Europe's biggest insurer reported on Friday, missing the average of 10 forecasts in a Reuters poll of banks and brokerages for
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World stock markets fell for the eighth straight session on Friday to the lowest since late 2010, with more losses feared if policymakers do not come to the rescue soon to stabilise the euro zone's debt crisis and prevent the U.S. economy from sliding back into recession. After panic overnight triggered the worst sell-off on
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Crooked property developer Gary Robb was slapped with an eight-day remand order by a Cyprus court on Thursday for cheating fellow Britons out of millions for holiday homes he could not deliver in the Turkish occupied north of the sialnd. Robb was arrested in the U.K. under a European arrest warrant and was handed over
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