International
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Judge okays BP plea, $4 billion penalty in Gulf oil spill
A US judge accepted an agreement by BP plc to plead guilty for its role in the Deepwater Horizon disaster and pay a record $4 billion in criminal penalties for the worst offshore oil spill in US history. The company said it pleaded guilty to 11...
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ECB’S Nowotny sees recovery coming to real economy
A recovery in financial markets is feeding into the real economy to some extent although growth rates were still low, European Central Bank policymaker Ewald Nowotny said yesterday. He said the Austrian Central Bank, which he heads, might have to...
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Analysts raise Amazon price targets as margins surprise
Amazon.com Inc’s better-than-expected profit margins surprised Wall Street, prompting at least five brokerages to raise their price targets on the world’s largest internet retailer’s stock yesterday. “We can’t help but stop and wonder whether the...
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Microsoft launches new Office for consumers
Microsoft Corp launched new Office software for home users, featuring constantly updated, online access to documents from all kinds of devices as the world’s largest software company attempts to tailor its most profitable product to a mobile...
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Davos bosses hunt $5 trln new revenue in low-growth world
Business leaders in Davos have plenty to worry about, from the eurozone to global geopolitical upheavals, but at heart their problem is simple: how to find new revenue in a low-growth world. Half a decade on from the financial crisis, investors...
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Google’s fourth-quarter results shine after ad rate decline slows
Revenue from Google Inc.’s core internet business outpaced many analysts’ expectations during the crucial holiday quarter and advertising rates fell less than in previous periods, pushing its shares up roughly five percent. The world’s largest...
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Siemens warns of weak global demand
Germany’s Siemens warned that demand for products such as industrial automation and drive technologies was weakening as it posted a decline in new orders for its fiscal first quarter. “For the rest of the year, we don’t expect any tailwinds from the...
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Unilever shares hit new high as growth beats estimates
Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company Unilever PLC/NV beat growth expectations in 2012, propelled by an increasing presence in emerging markets and leading its shares to a record high price. The maker of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Omo detergent...
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Dish to close 300 Blockbuster stores, shed 3,000 jobs
Dish Network Corp. plans to close 300 Blockbuster stores in the US in the coming weeks and could lay off as many as 3,000 employees, a move that comes days after the DVD rental firm’s UK unit went into administration. Dish is trying to shed...
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Facebook rolls out friends-based search product
Facebook Inc took the wraps off a new search tool yesterday that lets people trawl their network of friends to find everything from restaurants to movie recommendations, an improvement that’s likely to increase competition with review websites like...
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Silvio Berlusconi comeback threatens Italian market rally
A sharp rally in Italian government bonds and shares could be in jeopardy as scandal-plagued former premier Silvio Berlusconi gains ground in polls, putting investors’ bets on a centre-left election victory at risk. A reform-friendly coalition of...
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UK’s French Connection expects significant loss as discount delay backfires
Fashion retailer French Connection Group plc warned of a larger-than-expected loss as Christmas sales were hurt by lower demand and a decision to delay discounting. Shares in the British retailer, famous for its FCUK brand of clothes and...
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Japanese airlines ground Dreamliners following emergency landing
Japan’s two leading airlines grounded their fleets of Boeing 787s yesterday after one of the Dreamliner passenger jets made an emergency landing, the latest in a series of incidents to heighten safety concerns over a plane many see as the future of...
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Germany to bring gold home
A member of Deutsche Bundesbank’s staff points at a gold bar during a news conference in Frankfurt yesterday as the German Central Bank revealed plans to bring home some of its gold reserves stored in the United States’ and French central banks,...
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UK business leaders warn PM Cameron on EU exit
UK business leaders, including Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and WPP chief executive Martin Sorrell, warned Prime Minister David Cameron in a letter to the Financial Times yesterday that he risks hurting Britain’s businesses if he proposes to...
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UK goods deficit suggests trade slowed economy in Q4
Britain’s goods deficit narrowed slightly in November but held above its average for the past year, raising the chance that trade activity in the last three months of 2012 dragged on economic growth. The Office for National Statistics said yesterday...
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No Cyprus aid deal before February election – German newspaper
Cyprus can only expect a bailout in early March after its presidential election next month, the German newspaper Handelsblatt reported yesterday, citing sources close to negotiations. Cyprus holds presidential elections on February 17 and 24 and the...
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UBS investment bank cleaning up its act after Libor ‘shocker’
UBS has yet to fully purge itself of a global interest rate scandal that has cost the Swiss bank its reputation and put it at risk of a wave of costly civil suits, its investment banking chief said yesterday. The once-venerable institution was...
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Private US delegation in North Korea
Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, centre, right, and Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt, centre, left, visit the Korean Computer Centre in Pyongyang yesterday in this picture released by North Korea’s KCNA news agency. Reuters said...
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Eurozone factory slump deepens but Asia perks up
Eurozone factories sank deeper into recession in December as new orders tumbled, business surveys showed yesterday, a sharp contrast to continuing signs of revival in China. US manufacturing reports, to be released later in the day, are expected to...
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