News For Monday Dec 1, 2008 News For Monday Dec 1, 2008

Business Business

Swiss court imprisons ex-manager of Israeli bank - Added 9 hours ago

A Swiss court has sentenced a former branch manager of Israel's Bank Leumi to eight years in prison for a string of fraud-related offenses. The district court in Zurich says 57-year-old Ernst Imfeld is guilty of...

Mexico sells off foreign reserves to help peso - Added 9 hours ago

Mexico's central bank has sold off $400 million in foreign reserves to stabilize the peso as it continues to weaken against the U.S. dollar. Mexico's currency has fallen more than 30 percent against the dollar since...

ECB to relaunch bid process for building new HQ - Added 9 hours ago

The European Central Bank will reopen the bidding process for companies that want a hand in building its new headquarters. But the bank may wind up not building at all if it can't stay within the original budget. The...

EU, Australia toast new wine deal - Added 9 hours ago

The European Union and Australia signed an agreement Monday that will protect such European names as "Champagne" in Australia while further opening European markets to wines from Down Under. The deal will give...

Jaguar shooting suspect attends pretrial hearing - Added 9 hours ago

A man accused of shooting Jacksonville Jaguars offensive lineman Richard Collier 14 times appeared Monday at a pretrial hearing, only to have another pretrial hearing set next week. At the brief hearing, Assistant...

Facebook group creator detained by Croatian police - Added 9 hours ago

Send good karma, post a photo, criticize the prime minister _ all things you can do with the click of a mouse at Facebook, right? In Croatia, the last one might be a click too far. A man who launched a Facebook group...

Aston Martin laying off 600 employees - Added 9 hours ago

Aston Martin, maker of James Bond's luxury sports car, said Monday that it is laying off as much as a third of its work force because of falling sales during the economic slump. The cuts involve a mix of full-time and...

London's FTSE 100 down 222.52 points at 4,065.49 - Added 9 hours ago

Share prices on the London Stock Exchange closed down Monday. The FTSE 100-share index closed down 222.52 points at 4,065.49. ...

US dollar mixed, gold down in afternoon trading - Added 9 hours ago

The U.S. dollar was mixed against other major currencies in European trading Monday afternoon. Gold fell. The euro traded at $1.2625, down from $1.2708 late Friday in New York. Other dollar rates: _93.64 Japanese...

EU moves toward new hedge fund rules - Added 9 hours ago

The European Union will this week take the first step toward new rules governing high-risk hedge funds, the EU's financial services chief said Monday. EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, long opposed to regulating the...

European central banks under pressure to cut rates - Added 10 hours ago

The European Central Bank and the Bank of England are under mounting pressure to cut interest rates aggressively this week amid signs that the economic slump will be deeper and more prolonged than previously expected. ...

US-China talks will include currency issues - Added 10 hours ago

Administration officials say they will urge the Chinese to continue allowing their currency to rise in value against the dollar and to avoid raising protectionist trade barriers amid the global economic crisis. ...

AIG sells AIG Private Bank to Abu Dhabi firm - Added 10 hours ago

American International Group Inc. on Monday said it has agreed to sell its wealth management arm AIG Private Bank Ltd. to Aabar Investments PJSC of Abu Dhabi. Terms of the deal, which is part of the New York-based...

ND farmer defies government by draining wetlands - Added 10 hours ago

Armed with a tractor or a backhoe, Alvin Peterson moves dirt to drain prairie potholes on his land, saying he's putting the land back to the way God intended. The 78-year-old retired farmer from Lawton, in northeastern...

Russian purchase of Serbian oil company in doubt - Added 11 hours ago

Serbia said it won't sell its energy monopoly to Russia unless it gets firm guarantees from Moscow it will build a strategic pipeline through the Balkan country. The $13 billion South Stream natural gas pipeline to be...

Court: Swiss can hand over bank files in BAE probe - Added 11 hours ago

Switzerland can hand over bank documents to British authorities investigating whether arms manufacturer BAE Systems PLC bribed Czech politicians to gain a lucrative contract for the sale of fighter jets, the Federal...

Customers stew as kosher meat gets scarce - Added 11 hours ago

Rabbi Moishe Silverman stood taking inventory of a meat freezer at South Florida Kosher, the supermarket and butcher shop where he works. Dressed in a yarmulke and tie and wearing a plastic apron over his white butcher...

MISSING TITLE - Added 12 hours ago

Money sent home by Mexicans living abroad jumps 13 pct as the peso weakens against the dollar. ...

Budget shortfall forces cutbacks in Trinidad - Added 12 hours ago

The drop in world energy prices is forcing Trinidad and Tobago to postpone the construction of new schools and two major hospitals. Prime Minister Patrick Manning says the government needs to cut spending because...

Germany's BayernLB to slash 5,600 jobs - Added 12 hours ago

State bank BayernLB plans to cut 5,600 jobs _ 29 percent of its total work force _ through 2013 to weather the global financial crisis, the company said in a statement Monday. Blaming the "ongoing turmoil on...

UK says it's not thinking about adopting euro - Added 12 hours ago

The British government is not considering adopting the euro currency, despite a statement by the head of the European Commission, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman said Monday. Spokesman Michael Ellam's statement...

US interbank lending rates continue to rise - Added 13 hours ago

Interest rates on three-month dollar loans between banks rose for the third day Monday, as financial companies' funding concerns lingered despite last week's announcement by the Federal Reserve it would provide hundreds...

China hopes talks with US boost coordination - Added 13 hours ago

The global financial crisis is overshadowing U.S.-Chinese trade tensions as Cabinet ministers from the two sides meet this week for talks on the long-range growth of one of the world's most important economic...

Rosneft 3Q net profits down 20 pct from 2Q - Added 13 hours ago

Russia's largest oil producer Rosneft said Monday its third quarter profits fell 20 percent from the previous three months due to a dramatic decline in global crude prices. Rosneft's net income fell to $3.5 billion...

London Scottish Bank goes into administration - Added 13 hours ago

London Scottish Bank, which specializes in unsecured consumer lending and debt collection, said Monday it has gone into administration after its capital reserves ran short and it couldn't find a buyer. The British...

Sacyr Vallehermoso in $10B deal with Citi fund - Added 13 hours ago

Debt-laden Spanish construction company Sacyr Vallehermoso said Monday it has agreed to sell its highway-operating unit, Itinere, to a Citigroup Inc. fund in a deal valued at nearly euro7.9 billion ($10 billion). The...

EU says French bank rescue plan needs checking - Added 13 hours ago

The EU said Monday it had to carefully inspect France's bank bailout plan _ but stressed it was not blocking it _ to make sure banks wouldn't profit unfairly from large doses of state money. The EU rejected media...

Brazil stocks fall after a week of gains - Added 14 hours ago

Brazilian stocks are falling after rising five days in a row last week. Brazil's Ibovespa index was down 2 percent to 35,856 shortly after trading began. The nation's currency, the real, also fell against the dollar...

Report: China blocks Japan-flavored Taiwan film - Added 14 hours ago

China has reversed its decision to import a hit Taiwanese film that highlights Japan's 50-year colonial rule over the island because it may be offensive to nationalist sentiment on the Chinese mainland, news reports...

Iranian state TV: OPEC cut of 1.5M barrels likely - Added 14 hours ago

Iranian state TV is reporting that OPEC's Secretary-General says a daily oil production cut of between 1 million and 1.5 million barrels is likely in December. Secretary-General Abdullah El-Badri was quoted Monday on...

Sweden talks to US carmakers about Saab, Volvo - Added 15 hours ago

The Swedish government confirmed Monday it is in talks with General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. after a report that the U.S. automakers are seeking support for their struggling Swedish brands Saab and Volvo Cars. ...

Merkel: All options open for German economic help - Added 15 hours ago

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday she is leaving "all options open" to stimulate Germany's flagging economy, but repeated she still does not favor immediate tax changes. Speaking at a party convention in...

General Growth Properties gets loan reprieve - Added 15 hours ago

General Growth Properties Inc. has received a two-week extension on mortgage loans totaling $900 million, as the troubled shopping mall owner works to stave off bankruptcy and negotiate longer-term extensions with...

Spain's car sales halved in Nov. from year ago - Added 15 hours ago

Spain's car manufacturers on Monday reported a 50 percent drop in sales in November compared to the same period a year ago, the second worst annual drop on record and the latest sign of the country's sharply weakening...

Japan central bank to hold extra meeting Tuesday - Added 15 hours ago

Japan's central bank will hold an unscheduled monetary policy meeting Tuesday afternoon to discuss ways to help companies raise money amid a pullback among lenders. Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa called the...

Fortis board gets booed by angry shareholders - Added 15 hours ago

Shareholders of Fortis NV, the Belgian-Dutch lender which saw most of its operations sold or nationalized last month due to the credit crunch, booed members of the board at a meeting Monday and vented their anger over...

'12 Days of Christmas' items would cost $86,609 - Added 15 hours ago

Given the economic downturn, even the most romantic might balk at the $86,609 price tag for the items in the carol, "The Twelve Days of Christmas." That's this year's cost, according to the annual "Christmas Price...

Danish cycling team loses sponsor in fraud scandal - Added 15 hours ago

The Danish cycling team led by former Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis lost one of its main sponsors Monday after software firm IT Factory declared bankruptcy and said its chief executive had embezzled 500 million...

UN report calls for massive economic packages - Added 15 hours ago

The United Nations is recommending massive economic stimulus packages to deal with the fallout of a global downturn. A U.N. report _ entitled the Global Outlook Report _ predicts the U.S. dollar and world per capita...

Kuwait reviews 5-year development plan - Added 15 hours ago

A Kuwaiti Cabinet minister says the government is reviewing a 35-billion dinar _ about $128 billion _ development plan because of lower oil prices and the effects of the global financial crisis. Modhi al-Homoud, the...

New Star shares fall as it begins fresh debt talks - Added 16 hours ago

Shares in New Star Asset Management plummeted more than 65 percent on Monday after it revealed it has started fresh debt talks with banks and market authorities rejected its request to temporarily suspend trading in its...

China's CNPC gets $3.29 bln UAE pipeline project - Added 16 hours ago

China National Petroleum Corp. has won a bid to build a $3.29 billion pipeline in the United Arab Emirates, its largest overseas construction project so far, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday. The deal,...

Icelanders rally to protest economic meltdown - Added 16 hours ago

Icelanders were gathering Monday on the 90th anniversary of national autonomy to call for the ousting of bankers and politicians they blame for the country's economic collapse. The global credit crunch brought down the...

World markets retreat after last week's rally - Added 16 hours ago

Asian and European markets fell Monday as investors paused after last week's rally and digested signs that the U.S. holiday shopping season got off to a modest start over the Thanksgiving weekend. The declines came...

British lending growth slowed in October - Added 16 hours ago

Britons took out fewer mortgages and reined in spending in October as the economic downturn intensified, the Bank of England said Monday. Net lending to individuals grew by 1.3 billion pounds ($2 billion) in October _...

British manufacturing contracts at record pace - Added 17 hours ago

British manufacturing activity contracted at a record pace during November as new orders collapsed, a closely-watched survey found Monday, stoking expectations that the Bank of England may slash its benchmark interest...

Hong Kong's key stock index rises 1.6 percent - Added 17 hours ago

Hong Kong's key stock index rose Monday as traders snapped up bargains and China-related stocks. The blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 220.6 points, or 1.59 percent, to 14,108.84. "The market is recovering from its...

China manufacturing slows as downturn deepens - Added 17 hours ago

China's manufacturing activity contracted sharply in November as a downturn in the world's fourth-largest economy worsened, raising the threat of politically volatile job losses, according to data reported Monday. Also...

Euro, pound fall against dollar - Added 17 hours ago

The euro fell against the dollar on Monday as investors looked to Thursday's meetings of the European Central Bank and the Bank of England. Analysts expect both banks to cut their interest rates. The 15-nation euro...

German retail sales down 1.5 percent in Oct. - Added 18 hours ago

Retail sales in Europe's biggest economy fell 1.5 percent in October from last year as recession fears dampened spending by German consumers. The Wiesbaden-based Federal Statistics Office said Monday the figure was...