* EAC appeals to cut down consumption * At least 12 people were killed in a massive explosion at a military base on the southern coast of Cyprus just before dawn on Monday, damaging a major power station nearby and plunging half the island into darkness. Press reports raised the fatalities from eight earlier, while
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Syrian forces killed at least one civilian and injured 20 in Homs on Monday during the heaviest raids on the city since troops deployed there two months ago to crush dissent against President Bashar al-Assad, residents said. The armour and tank-backed assaults on Homs, Syria's third largest city and hometown of Assad's wife Asma, came
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Asian stocks dropped on Monday as a spate of weak economic data from China and the U.S. renewed concerns about the health of the global economy although sharp declines look unlikely before an emergency meeting to stem the spreading debt crisis. The euro weakened to a two-week low versus the dollar and Swiss franc amid
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After months of effort, President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans are right back where they started as they try to avert a looming debt default: arguing over taxes. With a "grand bargain" to tame the national debt seemingly off the table, Obama, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and other top leaders will try for
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The International Monetary Fund is confident that it will be able to stabilise the situation in Greece, a senior IMF official said on Sunday. "We are confident," said Min Zhu, special advisor to former IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and who is now expected to take a new deputy managing director post under the Fund's
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At least eight people were killed in a massive explosion at a military base on the southern coast of Cyprus on Monday, damaging a major power station nearby and plunging half the island into darkness. The state Cyprus News Agency quoted military sources as saying there were also scores of injured at the Evangelos Florakis
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European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has called an emergency meeting of top officials dealing with the euro zone debt crisis for Monday morning, reflecting concern that the crisis could spread to Italy, the region's third largest economy. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet will attend the meeting along with Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the
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Turkey hopes terms for the reunification of Cyprus can be agreed by the end of the year so that a referendum can take place in early 2012, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Saturday during a visit to the Turkish Cypriot enclave in the north of the island. "We hope to find a solution
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Greece's finance ministry will step up efforts to collect part of about 41 bln euros ($58.5 bln) in unpaid taxes and penalties as it scrambles to boost revenues and shrink the budget deficit. Athens is under pressure to meet fiscal targets set by its international lenders, a key prerequisite for funding, as revenue slippage in
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Greece will auction 1.25 bln euros ($1.78 billion) of six-month T-bills on Tuesday, July 12 to refinance maturing short-term debt, its debt agency PDMA said on Friday. Monthly T-bill sales are Greece's sole remaining route to market funding. Last month, its debt agency sold 1.625 bln euros of six-month paper yielding 4.96%, eight basis points
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