BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT, France, July 24 (Reuters) – French carmaker Renault on Thursday reported a better than expected first half operating profit margin of 4.1 percent and held on to its margin targets for 2008 and 2009, but stepped up cost cuts and reduced its volume targets due to the worsening economic situation. In line with results
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Oil prices fell to a seven-week low below $125 a barrel on Thursday as U.S. energy demand was seen reaching a tipping point, sending investors back into Asian stocks for the fourth consecutive day. A retreat in oil prices and signs of improved confidence in the U.S. financial sector also pushed the U.S. dollar to
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Urgent talks to salvage a global trade deal made "some progress" in the early hours of Thursday, ministers said, but officials warned the mood was dark behind closed doors at the World Trade Organisation. The ministers from Australia, Brazil, China, the European Union, India, Japan and the United States attempted to address major stumbling blocks
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Currency factors also play a role Moscow is the world's priciest city for expatriate workers and is almost 1-1/2 times as expensive as New York, Shanghai, Amsterdam and Madrid, a report on relative living costs showed. Tokyo rose above London into second place in the world rankings while Oslo, boosted by Norway's petrodollars, climbed six
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The Commission has approved a series of reports assessing the progress in Bulgaria and Romania of judicial reform and the fight against corruption under the Co-operation and Verification mechanisms set up when both countries joined the EU last year. The Commission has also adopted a separate report on the management of EU funds in Bulgaria.
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WASHINGTON, July 23 (Reuters) – President George W. Bush has an explanation for the housing-market meltdown that has thrown the global economy into turmoil: Wall Street got drunk. "There's no question about it. Wall Street got drunk," Bush said at a private event in Houston on Friday. "It got drunk and now it's got a
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ATHENS, July 23 (Reuters) – A Greek prosecutor has charged a 20-year-old British woman with strangling her newborn baby after giving birth in a hotel room on the Mediterranean island of Crete, a court official said on Wednesday. The prosecutor handed the charges to the woman, identified by police as Leah Andrews, late on Tuesday
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Repeated delays in shipping much needed water from Greece has left one of Cyprus's largest cities with only two weeks' supply of water as the country faces severe drought, officials said on Wednesday. New setbacks in getting drinking water off a ship for the 177,000 residents of Limassol, a port city in the south, has
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Government Spokesman Stephanos Stephanou has said that Cyprus President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat will make a review and a final assessment of discussions at bicommunal teams of experts at their meeting on July 25. Responding to questions, Stephanou said that even if the leaders decide to have direct negotiations, working
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The Cypriot Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Antonis Paschalides has described a European Commission announcement on small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in Europe as important in that it provides a comprehensive approach to their further progress. Paschalides was speaking at an informal meeting of EU Ministers of Competitiveness, held in Versailles last week, an
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