Italy's main centre-left party chose former Prime Minister Romano Prodi as its presidential candidate on Friday, igniting a battle with Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right that increases the likelihood of a snap election in the summer. Berlusconi's camp immediately rejected Prodi, one of the media tycoon's oldest political enemies, saying his election was likely to prevent any
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Poland's prime minister fired his treasury minister on Friday for failing to supervise the country's gas monopoly PGNiG and its dealings with Russia's Gazprom. The government was embarrassed earlier this month after premier Donald Tusk and Treasury Minister Mikolaj Budzanowski learned from media reports that a company controlled by PGNiG and Gazprom signed a memorandum
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The head of a French company accused of selling substandard, mislabelled breast implants defended his product in court on Friday, denying that the homemade gel used to fill them posed a danger to women. On the third day of his trial, Jean-Claude Mas, the founder and long-time chief executive of Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) acknowledged
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Manchester United winger Ashley Young will miss the rest of the season with an ankle injury, manager Alex Ferguson said on Friday. The England international picked up the problem in this month's 2-1 defeat by Manchester City and attended Wednesday's 2-2 draw at West Ham United on crutches. "Ashley is out for the season," Ferguson,
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Sterling edged up against the dollar on Friday, supported by broad weakness in the yen and talk of corporate flows that could spur demand for the British currency. Analysts said sterling gains were likely to be short-lived however, given concerns the economy is teetering on the brink of another recession and speculation of more monetary
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Honda is recalling about 225,300 SUVs and minivans in the United States and Canada to replace a part that if not operating could allow the driver to shift out of park without depressing the brake pedal. The Japanese automaker said in the U.S. it is recalling about 128,000 Honda CR-V SUVs and 59,000 Honda Odyssey
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One of Cyprus's most senior civil servants has likened his country's treatment by Germany and the IMF to the shooting of a pigeon with an atomic bomb, saying they had destroyed an economic system that worked. Christos Patsalides, permanent secretary of Cyprus's Ministry of Finance, also described the international lenders as "forces of occupation" that
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Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades will announce Friday a scheme aiming at hiring Cypriot employees at the tourist industry, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Giorgos Lakkotrypis has said. President Anastasiades is scheduled to present a set of measures aiming at kick-starting the economy, following a Eurogroup decision for a €10-billion financial assistance package for Cyprus.
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The rate of absorbency of EU funds by Cyprus was lower than the average for the EU, according to the European Commission`s Strategic Report on the implementation of 2007-2013 Cohesion Policy programmes. According to the Report, Cyprus could utilise €612.4 million for the period 2007-2013. By January 2013, the Cypriot authorities had absorbed €243.1 million
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World stocks and oil prices edged back up on Friday but remained on course for one of their worst weeks of the year following a sell-off triggered by global economic growth concerns. Surprisingly weak Chinese and U.S. economic data, on top of the IMF's decision to trim its global growth forecast, hit commodities from gold
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