Ukraine will be barred from joining a customs union of former Soviet states if it signs a free-trade pact with the European Union this November, warned Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Monday, urging Kiev to make the right political choice for the sake of its businesses and citizens.
Nearly 10,000 square kilometres of Amazon rainforest land is now under the “protection” of the Brazilian government, announced officials on Monday, claiming that they would allow only for sustainable development in the area in a bid to halt deforestation.
Royal Dutch Shell plc, the world’s largest oil company, will pay $1.1 million to settle air-quality violations made during two oil-exploration activities in the Arctic Ocean last year, according to a
Money laundering is a massive global problem. Billions in illicitly-earned money is laundered every year, often through reputable banking systems.
The transactions are often made to look legitimate, in order to avoid suspicion from law enforcement agencies. Criminals then infuse billions of dollars of black money into the stream of commerce and business, corrupting financial institutions and officials.
Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi had a 20-year pact with the mafia for protection and help with his business interests in exchange for millions of euros in payment, alleged Italian judges in a new judicial report released last week.
The leader of the People of Freedom (PdL) party was implicated in a Palermo court after his long-time associate Marcello Dell’Utri had been convicted recently for his mafia connections.
Women lipstick made in China could contain high levels of lead that have been linked to causing high blood pressure, joint pain and poor memory loss in adults, warned officials from the Philippines on Sunday, urging consumers to avoid unregistered lipstick brands and be wary of imitation products purporting to be legitimate brands.
The Philippines Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the advisory over the weekend after observing that many of these products were being sold widely on the streets of many urban areas without the agency’s approval.
The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) group of emerging economies have agreed to contribute $100 billion to a currency reserve pool that will guard against future financial shocks, such as the recent mass exodus of cash from emerging markets caused by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s most recent quantitative easing program.
Even with broad and prolonged support for raising taxes on the rich, tax reform regularly ranks near the bottom of America’s priority list. According to a Bloomberg poll, only 4 percent of respondents saw tax reform as the most important issue of the year (2012).
America’s love-hate relationship with taxation is hardly news. The country was birthed in a tax-induced revolution. The selection of its governments, as well as the difference between its two main political parties, has consistently revolved around tax issues.
Officials from the European Central Bank arrived in Athens on Wednesday for a check on whether Greece was meeting conditions for a scheduled tranche of aid in October, a visit that comes a day after German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble admitted that Greece will need a third bailout soon to stay afloat.
Schauble did not specify what form the new aid should take, but ruled out a write-down on Greece’s public debt, which is now mainly bailout loans owed to other European governments.
Brazil’s tourism board on Tuesday confirmed that it has asked world football governing body FIFA and hotel operators to lower prices during the 2014 World Cup, after a study found that room rates will be up to 500 percent more expensive during the games.
Brazil’s tourism board Emratur said it fears that the “stratospheric increase” of rates announced for the World Cup period next year could damage the country’s image.
