Unseasonably cold weather in eastern Europe is likely to linger into March, but Britain looks set to enjoy slightly milder than normal temperatures, U.S.-based Weather Services International (WSI) said on Monday. The specialist in forecasts for the weather-sensitive energy industry said in late January it expected abnormally cold weather to return to much of northern
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News that Britain's royal wedding invites are in the post has touched off lively press speculation, with former England soccer captain David Beckham and the King of Bahrain tipped to be attending but not Barack Obama or Sarah Ferguson. Royal watchers say Beckham, who worked with William on England's failed bid to host the World
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– Gold prices reach highest since early January Gold prices rose to a near seven-week high just below $1,400 an ounce in Europe on Monday as violence flared in North Africa and the Middle East, boosting interest in the precious metal as a haven from risk. Tensions have spread from Egypt and Tunisia, where protests
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Diageo Plc, the world's biggest spirits maker, Monday agreed to buy the Turkish spirits group Mey Icki for 1.3 billion pounds ($2.1 billion) to give it access to this fast-growing emerging market. The London-based maker of Johnnie Walker whisky and Smirnoff vodka is buying Turkey's biggest spirits company from investment firms TPG Capital LP and
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Vancouver topped the list of the world's most liveable cities for the fifth straight year, while Melbourne claimed second place from Vienna and Australian and Canadian cities dominated the list's top 10 spots. In the annual survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the Canadian west coast city and 2010 Winter Olympics host scored 98 percent
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Names can matter, thinks one Australian town named Speed — which renamed itself "Speedkills" in an effort to promote road safety. Speed, an outback town in rural Victoria with a population of just 45, will change its name for the month of March to reduce rural road accidents and increase awareness of the dangers associated
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Brent crude rose more than $2 a barrel on Monday after a report that workers at an oilfield in OPEC-member Libya were on strike as violent unrest gripped the country. Concern of oil supply disruption has bouyed prices as protests spread across the oil-producing Middle East and North Africa. A strike had stopped output at
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National Bank of Greece (NBG) is sticking to its all-share bid for smaller rival Alpha Bank and is not in talks to improve it, an official at NBG told Reuters on Monday. Greece's biggest bank made an offer on Friday for the third largest lender Alpha via an 8-for-11 share swap, in an bid to
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Cyprus and Germany have signed an agreement for the avoidance of double taxation on income and capital, which replaces an older agreement of 1974 between the two states. The agreement was signed Friday by Minister of Finance Charilaos Stavrakis and German Ambassador in Nicosia Gottfried Zeitz. Both of them pointed out that this new agreement
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Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis has said that the effort of its Ministry is to “convey to foreign investors the message that there has been a significant improvement of Cyprus economic indicators” so as to further reduce Cyprus loan rates. Stavrakis did not rule out the possibility of issuing new bonds if there are low-cost sources
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