France's top Catholic prelate criticised the Socialist government on Thursday for forging ahead with plans to legalise same-sex marriage when the country faced more urgent economic concerns. Paris Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois spoke as the Church's main charity agency issued a report showing more and more women in France falling below the poverty line in the
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Egypt's tetchy negotiations with the IMF on slashing subsidies as a part of a loan deal reflect a far broader fiscal and social conundrum in the region, raising the stakes for investors. Egyptian stocks have rallied 50% this year on greater political stability and hopes for a deal with the International Monetary Fund, after shedding
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New York City and much of the U.S. Northeast on Thursday dug out from a snowstorm that hammered a region still struggling to recover from the devastation of Superstorm Sandy. The unseasonably early winter storm dumped more than a foot (30 cm) of snow on parts of Connecticut and slapped the region with 50 mph
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Greece's construction sector contracted by more than a quarter in August compared with a year earlier, data showed on Thursday, continuing a slump that is deepening the country's worst peacetime downturn after five years of recession. Once a key growth driver for the 215-bln-euro economy, construction activity has been the sector hardest hit by the
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Greece has moved a step away from bankruptcy with parliament's approval of new reforms, but its debt pile still threatens its solvency and its international creditors have yet to agree even how big it is. Inspectors from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — together known as the troika
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Coca-Cola Hellenic (CCH) , the world's second-largest bottler of Coca-Cola Co. soft drinks, posted a 12% drop in nine-month profit, hurt by austerity in its debt-laden markets, higher commodity costs and currency shifts. The company's comparable net income of 265 million euros ($338.01 million) beat analysts' average expectations of 256.8 million. EU-IMF austerity measures have
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The euro zone economy shows little sign of recovering before the year-end despite an easing of financial market conditions, European Central Bank Mario Draghi said on Thursday after interest rates were left at a record low. The ECB held its main rate at 0.75%, deferring any cut in borrowing costs while it waits for a
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Royal Dutch Shell , RWE and TransGlobe Energy have won concessions in Egypt's first licensing round since the 2011 revolution in a sign that international oil firms are undeterred by a payment backlog of billions of dollars. The biggest winners were Canada's TransGlobe with four concessions and Shell with three concessions in the western desert
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The Vatican congratulated U.S. President Barack Obama on his re-election but reminded him on Wednesday of the thorny differences between the Catholic Church and his administration over abortion and healthcare. The Vatican hoped Obama would be able to serve law and justice "in respect of the essential human and spiritual values and the promotion of
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UK shares fell sharply from two week highs on Wednesday after concerns over growth in Europe and the U.S. swamped initial relief that the U.S. presidential election had been settled quickly. The European Union issued its growth forecasts for the region, which were more pessimistic than national government predictions and estimated a bigger than predicted
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