Cyprus in EU bailout crisis

NICOSIA (AFP) ― President Nicos Anastasiades will on Monday attempt to persuade Cypriot lawmakers to back an EU bailout deal that slaps a levy on bank savings, amid fears of a run on accounts if he fails.Anastasiades, in an address to the shell-shocked nation on Sunday night, said that rejecting the EU demands would have seen Cyprus exit the eurozone and face bankruptcy.“I chose the least painful option, and I bear the political cost for this, in order to limit as much as possible the consequenc

March 18, 2013

Google chairman to visit Myanmar

YANGON (AFP) ― Google chairman Eric Schmidt will visit Myanmar this week, highlighting increasing Internet freedom in the former pariah state just weeks after a controversial trip to communist North Korea.Schmidt will speak in Yangon on March 22 as part of an Asian tour, the Internet giant said, aiming to boost web access in the country, ruled for decades by a repressive military junta. Under the military regime the Internet was strictly controlled, with access to anti-government sites and sites

March 17, 2013

‘U.S. must wean cars, trucks off oil’

LEMONT, Illinois (AP) ― Envisioning cars that can go “coast to coast without using a drop of oil,” President Barack Obama on Friday urged Congress to authorize spending $2 billion over the next decade to expand research into electric cars and biofuels to wean automobiles off gasoline. Obama, expanding on an initiative he addressed in his State of the Union speech last month, said the United States must shift its cars and trucks entirely off oil to avoid perpetual fluctuations in gas prices. Citi

March 17, 2013

‘Too-big-to-fail banks should be shrunk’

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said the government should break up the biggest U.S. banks rather than allow them to hold a “too-big- to-fail” advantage over smaller firms. The 12 largest financial institutions hold almost 70 percent of the assets in the nation’s banking system and profit from an unfair implicit guarantee that the government would bail them out, Fisher said Saturday in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland.

March 17, 2013

Cyprus secures bailout from EU, IMF

BRUSSELS (AP) ― Cash-strapped Cyprus secured a 10 billion euros ($13 billion) bailout package from its European partners and the International Monetary Fund in a bid to prevent the island nation from entering a bankruptcy that could rekindle the region’s debt crisis, officials said early Saturday. In a major departure from established policies, the package foresees a one-time levy on the money held in bank accounts in Cyprus. Analysts have warned that making depositors take a hit threatens to un

March 17, 2013

EU leaders wrestle with austerity

BRUSSELS (AFP) ― European Union leaders wrestled with German demands for strict austerity and a French-Italian push for growth-friendly spending at a summit colored by fears that rampant unemployment is destroying the bloc, and clouded by a bailout for Cyprus.As thousands protested over European jobless lines stretching to 26 million, outgoing Italian premier Mario Monti o0n Thursday urged his peers to allow Italy, and other countries facing public finance pressures, to spend in order to create

March 15, 2013

EU lawmakers reject $1.3tr budget proposal

BRUSSELS (AP) ― The European Parliament overwhelmingly rejected a proposal for the European Union’s 960 billion euro ($1.3 trillion) budget Wednesday, in the latest example of the lawmakers’ newfound resolve to stand up to the bloc’s national leaders. “This is an important step for the European democracy,’’ said European Parliament President Martin Schulz. The seven-year plan ― brokered at a summit of the 27 heads of state and government last month after two days of nearly round-the-clock negoti

March 14, 2013

Google pays $7m fine to settle Wi-Fi privacy case

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― Google will pay a $7 million fine to settle a multistate investigation into a snoopy software program that enabled the Internet search leader to intercept emails, passwords and other sensitive information sent several years ago over unprotected wireless networks in neighborhoods across the world. The agreement announced Tuesday covers 38 states and the District of Columbia, part of the area where households and local merchants unwittingly had some of their communications on

March 13, 2013

U.S. approves Boeing’s 787 fix

WASHINGTON (AP) ― A Boeing plan to redesign the 787 Dreamliner’s fire-plagued lithium-ion batteries won approval Tuesday from the Federal Aviation Administration, moving the cutting-edge planes a step closer to flying passengers again. The plan includes changes to the internal battery components to minimize the possibility of short-circuiting, which can lead to overheating and cause a fire. Among the changes are better insulation of the battery’s eight cells and the addition of a new containment

March 13, 2013

IMF’s Lipton urges officials to redouble bank oversight reform

The International Monetary Fund’s No. 2 official urged policy makers to clean up banks and strengthen oversight of their financial systems or risk stalling a recent rally in global markets. With the world economy still subdued, further repair of banks’ balance sheets is necessary, which may require more capital for some lenders and closure for others, David Lipton, the fund’s first deputy managing director, said in a speech in Washington Tuesday. He also called for unwinding of excessive public

March 13, 2013

Bank of Japan critic Iwata gains traction

Two opposition parties said they will support Kikuo Iwata for Bank of Japan deputy governor, reducing the risk that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will fail to win confirmation for all three of his central bank nominees. The endorsements put Iwata above the threshold needed to win confirmation in the upper house of parliament, provided lawmakers follow their party’s recommendations. The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan Tuesday said it would vote against Iwata while supporting Haruhiko Kuroda

March 13, 2013

Ryan plan kicks off U.S. budget fight

WASHINGTON (AP) ― House Republicans redoubled their efforts to roll back signature accomplishments of President Barack Obama on Tuesday, offering a slashing budget plan that would repeal new health care subsidies and cut spending across a wide swath of programs dear to Obama and his Democratic allies. The GOP plan was immediately rejected by the White House as an approach that “just doesn’t add up” and would harm America’s middle class. Obama said the plan would “slash deeply” into programs such

March 13, 2013