EUROPE - With France and Germany at odds, and events moving quickly, a strategy for fiscal and political union is being drawn up. It is a measure of the speed at which the politics of the euro crisis is changing.
EUROPE - Billionaire investor George Soros predicts that the euro will survive, but cautions that Europe is likely to become "a German empire." In a speech in Italy on Saturday, Soros said that the survival of the euro probably will lead to a prolonged depression in southern Europe, but northern Europe will continue to do well economically.
EUROPE - The bad news from the eurozone is unrelenting. Unemployment is at a record high. Greece, paralysed by political uncertainty, is edging closer to the exit. Spain’s banks are teetering on the brink. Yesterday, the billionaire investor George Soros warned there may be as little as three months left to take decisive action to save the single currency – or risk a devastating collapse.
BERLIN, GERMANY - Pressed by a banking crisis and turmoil in the markets, Germany has indicated that it is prepared to accept a grand bargain that would provide greater support for its most indebted euro zone partners in exchange for more centralized control over government spending in Europe.
VATICAN - Though Pope Benedict XVI's personal butler has been arrested in connection with the "Vatileaks" scandal, new documents released over the weekend indicate he had powerful backers that remain unidentified. The secret documents expose the pontiff's awkward and helpless leadership in the Church.
RUSSIA - When Russia opens a "billion-dollar bridge" on its Pacific coast this summer, Vladimir Putin can expect an enthusiastic audience among the 5,000 islanders whom it will connect to the mainland, at an eye-popping cost per head.
EUROPE - Finance chiefs of the Group of Seven leading industrialized powers will hold emergency talks on the euro zone debt crisis on Tuesday in a sign of heightened global alarm about the threat posed by strains inside the 17-nation monetary union.
UK - Growth of the world money supply has dropped to the lowest level since the financial crisis of 2008-2009, heralding a severe economic slowdown later this year unless authorities rapidly take action.
ISRAEL - The IDF (Israeli Defence Force) uses cyber space to gather intelligence, attack enemies and conduct various military operations, the military revealed on Sunday in a posting on its official website.
EUROPE - When Jean-Claude Trichet called last June for the creation of a European finance ministry with power over national budgets, the idea seemed fanciful, a distant dream that would take years or even decades to realize, if it ever came to be.
LONDON, UK - As Spain’s economic crisis deepens and uncertainty swirls over Greece’s future in the eurozone, the guardians of the increasingly fragile European monetary union are near a moment of truth: can they muster the will and resources to keep the eurozone from breaking apart?
JAPAN - The Tokyo market slumped to a 28-year low on Monday as Asian shares dived on fears of a nightmare scenario of eurozone breakup, US economic relapse and a sharp slowdown in China. "Investors are just fleeing risk assets," said ATI Asset Management chief investment officer Simon Burge.
EUROPE - Eurozone governments have around three months to ensure the survival of the single currency, billionaire investor George Soros said in a speech on Saturday. “We are at an inflection point. After the expiration of the three months’ window, the markets will continue to demand more but the authorities will not be able to meet their demands,” he warned in a speech at the Festival of Economics in Trento, Italy.
EUROPE - The euro has essentially broken down as a viable economic and political undertaking. The latest rush of events reeks of impending denouement. Switzerland is threatening capital controls to repel bank flight from Euroland. The Swiss two-year note has fallen to -0.32 per cent, not that it seems to make any difference.
GERMANY/ISRAEL - Israel is arming submarines supplied and largely financed by Germany with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, influential German news weekly Der Spiegel reports in its issue to be published on Monday. The magazine said in a cover story that Berlin had until now denied any knowledge that German submarines were being used as part of an Israeli atomic arsenal.