Economy

Vodafone makes approach for German cable company
Mobile phone company Vodafone has approached Germany's biggest cable operator about a possible takeover. Vodafone said Wednesday It has had ...
UK unemployment falls slightly
Official government figures show that UK job market recovered slightly, with unemployment falling by 5,000 between February and April. The Office for ...
Zara owner sees lowest Q1 profit growth in 4 years
Spanish clothes retailer Inditex, which owns the Zara store chain, is blaming currency fluctuations for its lowest first-quarter growth in four years.
SAS airline Q2 loss narrows to $59 million
Scandinavian airline group SAS says its second-quarter net loss narrowed to 388 million kronor ($59 million) from 429 million kronor a year earlier ...
Central bank: Finland in recession through 2012
The Finnish central bank says Finland's economy is in worse shape than earlier believed and that the recession will continue through 2012. The bank's ...
French strike leads protest of EU air travel plan
Air traffic controllers in France kicked off a series of strikes against a European plan to overhaul their industry, forcing the country's main ...
Judge sides with GM, dismisses Spyker lawsuit
A U.S. judge has dismissed a $3 billion lawsuit filed by Dutch car maker Spyker against General Motors Co. Spyker sued GM in August, accusing it of ...
Iran: Bushehr nuclear plant has generator problem
Iran's Russian-built nuclear power plant has had an electric generator malfunction, an Iranian official said Monday. The flaw at the Bushehr plant ...
World ski body tightens rules on betting sponsors
The International Ski Federation has tightened its rules on accepting sponsorship by gambling operators. The governing body says "title and presenting ...
Victims of Saddam-era gas attack seek French probe
Twenty victims of Saddam Hussein's 1988 chemical weapons attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja, requested a judicial investigation of French suppliers ...
France Telecom CEO questioned in corruption case
The chief executive of France Telecom-Orange is being held for questioning in a corruption case that has also involved International Monetary Fund ...
Dutch central bank says deficit set to worsen
The Netherlands' central bank is warning that unless the Dutch government cuts spending, the country's budget deficit will widen from 3.5 percent of ...
Swedish male train drivers wear skirts to work
Commuters on a train line in northern Stockholm were met with an unusual sight this week: male train drivers and conductors wearing skirts to work.
Bolshoi won't renew star dancer's contract
The Bolshoi Theater won't renew the contract of Nikolai Tsiskaridze, a veteran principal dancer and teacher who for years has been in open conflict ...
Operator in US building collapse deaths in custody
A heavy equipment operator who is accused of being high on marijuana when a building collapsed onto a thrift store, killing six people in the U.S.
Noble drills to confirm size of Cyprus gas field
Noble Energy says it has begun drilling to determine the size of a gas field off Cyprus' southern coast. The Houston-based company said Friday that ...
EU's top economic official lashes out at IMF
The man in charge of the European Union's rescues of its debt-crippled countries has slammed the International Monetary Fund's criticism of the Greek ...
German economy recovering after weak patch
Germany's central bank on Friday lowered its growth forecast for this year but said a recovery had already started, as evidenced by a rise in export ...
Chinese taste for baccarat drives Macau boom
In the nearly three dozen casinos in Macau, the world's biggest gambling market, there's only one game that matters: baccarat. Almost all of Macau's ...
EU rejects IMF criticism on handling Greek crisis
Two of the main institutions in charge of managing Europe's debt crisis have clashed over whether mistakes were made in the handling of Greece's debt ...
ECB cuts eurozone outlook as rate held at 0.5 pct
The European Central Bank has cut its growth forecast for the troubled euro area this year, but said there were enough signs of improvement ahead that ...
Fiat Industrial announces name of merged company
Fiat Industrial says the new company created from a merger with its U.S. subsidiary CNH Global N.V. will be called CNH Industrial N.V. The Italian ...
Russia's Norilsk Nickel to double dividend payout
Russian mining giant Norilsk Nickel said on Thursday it will pay $2 billion, or 90 percent of its 2012 net profit, in dividends to shareholders.
Chrysler to recall 630,000 SUVs worldwide
Just two days after refusing a government request to recall 2.7 million older-model Jeeps, Chrysler has decided to do two other recalls totaling ...