Swedish car shipper Wallenius Lines said on Friday it had deployed guards with rifles on its vessels to ward off Somali pirates, the first Swedish-flagged shipper to state publicly it had armed personnel on board. Somali pirates are making millions of dollars in ransoms from seizing ships in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden,
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* Rejects independent review of Fresh & Easy Tesco , the world's No. 3 retailer, has won over shareholders with a simpler and long-term focused executive pay scheme following years of disputes over how it rewards management. Some 97.2% of voting shareholders backed the new pay plan at the British supermarket group's annual general meeting
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* Credibility of accuser called into question * Dramatic turnaround could alter French politics * The sexual assault case against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was close to collapse on Friday, sources close to the case said, in a dramatic turnabout that could upend French politics again. Strauss-Kahn, 62, was a steward of the world
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The government of Cyprus plans to cut the number of staff in its broad public sector by 5,000 over the next five years, spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said on Friday, a day after the teachers rejected a proposal for voluntary contributions to help reduce the island’s huge public deficit. However, the core government workers will not
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A business forum will be held in Kiev on Monday, July 4, during an official visit to the Ukraine by President Demetris Christofias. The forum is being organised by the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KEVE) and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, in cooperation with the Cyprus-Ukraine Business Association and the Ukrainian
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Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter gave an upbeat assessment of Greece's chances of getting a next tranche of bailout loans after its parliament passed tough reforms demanded by international partners. Euro zone finance ministers will meet on Sunday to hear a review of the situation in Greece by the European Commission, the European Central Bank
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Greece's finance ministry welcomed on Friday a decision to change the Eurogroup meeting of finance ministers originally scheduled for Sunday to a teleconference on Saturday. A ministry official said the teleconference would discuss this week's votes by Greek parliament to pass two austerity bills which the European Union and International Monetary Fund have made a
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* Premiere a week away; could break records * As the studio behind the Harry Potter films likes to remind us, "It all ends here". "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2", the eighth and final instalment in one of cinema's most successful series, has its premiere in London in a week, and
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Monthly earning rose by 2.3% over the same period of the previous year in the first quarter, according to the preliminary estimations of the Statistical Service. This was lower than the 3% corresponding increase during the first quarter of 2010. The average monthly earnings of employees during the first quarter of 2011 amounted to EUR
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Thousands of British teachers and civil servants went on strike on Thursday over plans to reform public sector pensions, launching what could be extended action testing government resolve to drive through austerity measures. The strikes, mirroring protests across continental Europe against government-imposed austerity, are the first in what unions have threatened will be a wave
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