Since 2007, Greece has faced a debt crisis as a result of the financial plight that plagued the world. This past week the government in Athens and creditors agreed to a bailout reforms needed to unlock loans from its 86 billion euro rescue package. Both the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have started negotiations regarding Greece’s… Read more »
BBC: The allegations are part of the case against an alleged Swiss spy arrested in a Frankfurt hotel on Friday, German media report. He is suspected of monitoring German tax investigators. Switzerland objects to the practice of buying data stolen from Swiss banks. The mole allegedly spied inside North Rhine-Westphalia’s finance ministry. Investigators suspect that the mole – not yet… Read more »
Reuters: In a major turnaround, Portugal has emerged as the year’s best performing euro zone bond market outside little-traded Greece, helped by its improving economy and shrinking budget deficit and by the fading threat of a break-up of the bloc. Benchmark 10-year Portuguese bonds have returned just over 4 percent so far this year, while returns on almost all their… Read more »
Reuters: Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called on Greece’s international lenders on Thursday to reach an agreement on easing its debt burden by May 22, when euro zone finance ministers meet in Brussels to discuss the bailout progress. Athens and its creditors reached a long-awaited deal this week on a series of bailout reforms Greece needs to unlock loans from its… Read more »
BBC: Prosecutors in Paris have opened an investigation following his complaint. The news came after the centrist, pro-EU candidate was regarded as having come out on top in the final TV debate ahead of Sunday’s run-off vote. His far-right adversary, Marine Le Pen, referred to the claims in the debate. He replied: “That is defamation.” On Thursday, an aide to… Read more »
On Thursday, the first of more than 1,100 NATO soldiers arrived in Poland. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Romania are contributing troops in order to counter potential threats from neighboring Russia, including an S-400 missile defense system Moscow has positioned in Kaliningrad. Three other formations, similar to NATO’s response in Poland, are expected to become operational in the… Read more »
Al Jazeera: Poland on Thursday welcomed the first US troops in a multinational force being posted across the Baltic region to counter potential threats from Russia. More than 1,100 soldiers – 900 US troops as well as 150 British and 120 Romanians – are to be deployed in Orzysz, about 57km south of Russia’s Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad, where… Read more »
Reuters: The British government has decided to extend the deadline on talks to form a power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland between Irish nationalists and pro-British unionists until after a snap UK-wide election, two sources told Reuters on Thursday. Several parties said the talks had been rendered unsustainable by Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision on Tuesday to call a general election… Read more »
Reuters: Germany’s economic upswing is likely to gain further momentum in the first quarter of this year, pushing up tax revenues by more than expected, the Finance Ministry said on Friday. “The German economy continues to be on the up,” the ministry said in its monthly report, adding that recent production data, incoming orders and rising employment levels pointed to… Read more »
Al Jazeera: A gunman has killed a police officer and seriously wounded two others before being shot dead in an attack on the Champs Elysees shopping district in the French capital, according to Paris police and the interior ministry. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group claimed responsibility for the attack on Thursday evening, which took place… Read more »