. Last Friday’s downgrade by Standard and Poor’s of the Cyprus and eight other eurozone economies did not come as a surprise to most of us, with the exception being the Akel-led administration that wants to play to its voters and adopted the populist strategy of “the capitalists are to blame.” What Finance Minister Kikis
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Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, has taken the top honour at the World Travel Awards for the third year in a row. It was named the World’s Leading Airline, while the judges also presented Etihad with awards for the World’s Leading First Class and World’s Leading Airline to the Middle East. Highlights
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A crew member of the capsized Costa Concordia told the Italian coastguard the vessel had only suffered a power outage and there was no emergency onboard, even after passengers had put on life vests, according to a new recording aired on Thursday. News channel Sky TG 24, which broadcast the tape, said it was the
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British online fashion retailer ASOS bucked the UK retail gloom with sales in the last three months of 2011 bouncing back from a disappointing performance in the previous quarter, it said on Thursday. "(It) was a bit of a wake-up call, we'd taken our eye off the ball a bit," Chief Executive Nick Robertson told
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The number of Americans filing for new jobless benefits dropped to a near four-year low last week, pointing to some building up of momentum in the labor market and the economy. But the upbeat economic outlook was dampened by other data on Thursday showing a drop in new residential construction in December after hefty gains
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Conflict in Syria has pushed the pound currency to a record low of 70 to the U.S. dollar on the black market, exchange dealers said on Thursday, eroding a third of its value since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began 10 months ago. Dealers said the weakening of the local currency had accelerated in
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Croatia is expected to vote for European Union membership in a referendum on Sunday, overcoming its wariness about giving away sovereignty in the hope of shoring up its economy despite the bloc's debt crisis. War and hardline nationalism in the 1990s kept the small Adriatic country on the sidelines for so long that it is
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Greece and its bondholders have made little progress since resuming stalled talks on a debt swap, three sources close to the talks told Reuters on Thursday, as time to strike a deal and avoid a messy default runs out rapidly. Nearly a week after talks hit an impasse, the two sides remain bogged down over
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European regulators will decide around the end of March whether to file a formal complaint against Google for misuse of its market position, potentially bringing the internet company's squabble with competitors to a head much sooner than expected. "I will receive comments from the case team towards the end of the first quarter. I do
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Oil giant BP will likely agree to pay the U.S. Department of Justice $20-$25 billion next month to settle all civil and criminal charges around the Deepwater Horizon rig blast and Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a leading industry analyst predicted on Thursday. Martijn Rats, head of European oil research at Morgan Stanley said in
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