Greece dims as a shopping attraction Residents of Cyprus returning from a trip abroad in June rose by 1.2% compared with the same period of the previous year, according to the Passengers’ Survey. In June 2011 there were 104,273 trips compared with 103,014 in the same period of the previous year. The UK was a
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The support package for Greece announced after last Thursday's summit benefits all euro area sovereigns by containing the contagion risk that would likely have followed a disorderly payment default on existing Greek debt, Moody's Investors Service said in a special comment on Monday. However, the credit implications of the announcement for creditors of individual countries
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A deadly train crash in China over the weekend has raised concerns about the safety of the country's fast-growing rail network and threatens to undermine its plans to export high-speed train technology. The concerns were enough to push share prices down in Chinese rail companies by as much as 16%. China sacked three senior railway
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Bewildered Asian officials could only watch and hope for the best on Monday after U.S. lawmakers failed to break a debt impasse that threatens to trigger a default and up-end global financial markets. Asia, which holds close to $3 trln in U.S. government debt, has a powerful vested interest in Washington finding a workable compromise.
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Former Asia soccer chief Mohamed Bin Hammam wants the evidence presented to FIFA that led to his life ban from football to be placed in the public domain, the Qatari said in a blog post on Monday. The 62-year-old was banned by football's ruling body on Saturday after a two-day hearing into allegations he had
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The man who bombed Norway's capital and gunned down Labour Party youths on an island, killing at least 93, told police he intended to target former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, Oslo newspaper Aftenposten said. Brundtland, who led three Labour Party governments in the 1980s and 1990s and is often called "mother of the nation",
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will seek another six-year term in an election next year despite recent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor, he told a state newspaper in an interview published late on Sunday. News that the 56-year-old socialist leader underwent an operation last month in Havana to remove a baseball-sized tumor has called into
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Chinese officials in Kunming ordered two fake Apple shops to close, a local newspaper reported on Monday, an apparent reaction to a storm of media attention about an unauthorised and elaborate hoax store in the southwestern city. After an investigation of 300 shops in the city, officials found five self-branded "Apple Stores" to be operating
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Stocks fell while the Swiss franc rose and gold hit a record high on Monday as hopes for a political deal to avert a U.S. default began to fade, though investors were mostly seeking to protect their portfolios with no signs of panic selling. Equity markets in Asia were down between 0.8% to 2.1%, and
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"I heard screams. I heard people begging for their lives and I heard shots. He just blew them away. I was certain I was going to die." Erik Kursetgjerde, an 18-year-old Labour Party youth member, described the fear and panic on Utoeya island when a gunman staged a methodical massacre on Friday — half an
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