By Andrew Stern (Reuters) The next government stimulus effort is likely to target America's crumbling infrastructure, and experts say the funding is sorely needed with bulldozers ready to roll on scores of projects. "We have projects that are shovel-ready — the designs are complete, the environmental permits have been obtained, the right-of-way has been obtained,
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U.S. President-elect Barack Obama nominated Congressional Budget Office chief Peter Orszag on Tuesday to be the director of the White House budget office. Obama, who will take office on Jan. 20, also named Rob Nabors as the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, a statement from his office said. "In these challenging
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Former UBS AG chief Marcel Ospel, at the centre of a Swiss media campaign against excessive pay for UBS bankers, and other ex-board members agreed on Tuesday to return 33 million Swiss francs ($27.5 million) in payments from the bank. Ospel, who quit as UBS chairman in April, has been asked by Swiss media to
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European shares eked out a gain on Tuesday, as advances in banks and energy stocks offset falls in autos and drugmakers and a slide in Rio Tinto after BHP Billiton dumped a bid for the miner. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares ended unofficially 0.3 percent higher at 831.25 points, after having traded
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Greece's third largest lender Alpha Bank reported a slight decline in net profit in the first nine months of the year and said it was suspending its expansion in eastern Europe due to the world crisis. Alpha said it was taking steps to weather the credit crunch, which has left most major Greek lenders largely
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Cyprus Airways boosted its fleet with an additional Airbus 319 which will arrive at the Larnaca Airport on Wednesday. The Airbus 319 will be given the name “Larnaca” and will carry 126 passengers, 12 of which in the business class. According to a Cyprus Airways press release, the 2,5 years old aircraft will come from
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The European Union's fiscal boost plan should amount to at least 1 percent of gross domestic product, and the European Central Bank has room to cut interest rates, Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker said on Tuesday. "One percent is the amount we would need in order to react in a proper way to the crisis," Juncker
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The European Commission will propose on Wednesday a short, sharp boost to the recession-hit European economy including value-added tax cuts and a call for lower ECB interest rates, a draft document showed. The draft proposal, obtained by Reuters, did not specify the size of the stimulus plan, which Germany said last week could be worth
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Angola may be unable to implement part of a $42-billion programme to rebuild its infrastructure because of the global financial crisis and drop in oil prices, the country's president said on Tuesday. Angola, which rivals Nigeria as sub-Saharan Africa's largest oil producer, has embarked on a massive upgrade of railways, ports and other infrastructure destroyed
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Chinese President Hu Jintao vowed to increase maritime investment in Greece on Tuesday after the signing of a 3.4 billion euro ($4.4 billion) deal to run the country's largest port, despite protests from dockers. Hu and Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis witnessed the signing of the contract by state-controlled China Ocean Shipping Company (Cosco) to
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