Saboteurs bombed a gas pipeline in eastern Turkey, halting the flow of Iranian gas and causing minor injuries to 28 soldiers, Turkish officials said on Friday. The overnight attack, less than a week after gas flow was restarted following a previous strike, prompted Russia's Gazprom to increase its supplies to Turkey to offset the shortfall.
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Starbucks Corp chief Howard Schultz defended his company's UK tax payments and said he would be happy to co-operate with any official probe of the British unit's finances. Speaking on Friday at the opening of the first Starbucks branch in India, Schultz denied shifting profits out of the UK unit into tax havens. "We don't
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Lloyds Banking Group may need to increase the funds it has set aside to compensate Britons sold unwanted insurance policies by more than 2 billion pounds ($3.2 billion), according to some analysts. Rival Barclays hiked its provision on Thursday for the mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI) by 700 million pounds to 2 billion pounds,
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Cyprus wants the euro zone's ESM bailout fund to be able to recapitalise its banks directly, it said on Friday. Finance Minister Vassos Shiarly told reporters Cyprus wanted to be able to transfer any assumed debt for the recapitalisation of its banks to the European Stability Mechanism, once it became active. The issue would be
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Debt-laden Greece expects to get the bailout money it needs before its cash runs out in the middle of next month, the prime minister said on Friday. Speaking to reporters at a European Union summit, Antonis Samaras added that the country would go broke if it did not. "I believe that the disbursement will have
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel raised new hurdles on Friday to using the euro zone's rescue fund to inject capital directly into ailing banks from next year, dashing Spain's hopes of soon removing the cost from its strained national debt. Merkel's move limited the impact of a key decision by European Union leaders struggling to overcome
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* Piraeus in final deal for SocGen’s Geniki * French banks Credit Agricole and Societe Generale have collectively spent billions of euros sealing their exit from debt-ravaged Greece, injecting capital and sweetening terms for buyers to take businesses off their hands. Thanks to the French taxman, however, they have managed to recoup 2 billion euros
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The sole member of anti-Kremlin punk group Pussy Riot freed on appeal has taken her case to the European Court of Human Rights, her lawyer said on Friday, accusing Russia of violating her right to freedom of speech and illegally detaining her. Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, was one of three band members sentenced to two years
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Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, on trial for allegedly having sex with an underaged prostitute, on Friday denied there had ever been sex games at parties in his villa. "I can rule out that there have ever been scenes of a sexual nature," the 76-year-old Berlusconi, wearing a dark blue suit, told judges as
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Britain is prepared to block any European Union budget deal that it deems unacceptable and against its national interests, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Friday ahead of budget negotiations next month. "I think it would be good to have a deal, it's good to settle these issues, but it just would not be acceptable
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