France’s foreign intelligence service, the Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure (DGSE), has been sweeping up nearly all data transmissions, including telephone calls, e-mails and social media activity, that come in and out of France, reported French daily Le Monde on Thursday, claiming that the French state was able to use the surveillance “to spy on anybody at any time”.
China’s key financial centre Shanghai has received State Council approval to establish a trial free-trade zone within its surrounding area, serving as a test for some of the government’s financial overhauls, including interest rate liberalisation and full convertibility of the renminbi, reported the China Daily on Thursday.
European Union and International Monetary Fund officials may freeze bailout payments to Greece worth 8.1 billion euros for three months, said a senior eurozone official on Wednesday, after Athens failed to enact necessary reforms and cuts to its bloated public sector.
The Indian government on Wednesday approved an ambitious $22 billion food security programme that will guarantee cheap food grains for nearly 800 million citizens; a move which critics say is a populist measure that will weigh on the country’s strained public finances.
“The cabinet has unanimously approved the food security ordinance,” Food Minister K. V. Thomas told reporters in New Delhi. The interim Food Security Ordinance is expected to become law this week but must be ratified by Parliament in its next session.
The United States Federal Reserve on Tuesday voted unanimously in favour of tougher bank capital rules for Wall Street, a move in line with developing international standards meant to prevent another catastrophic bank bailout seen in 2008.
At a board meeting in Washington, Fed officials led by Chairman Ben Bernanke agreed to force banks to abide by the new, tougher international standards on bank capital and debt.
China markets stabilised on Monday as policymakers offered reassurance that there is ample liquidity in the financial system, bringing to a close June’s record credit squeeze which raised fears that China’s years of relying on debt to finance massive projects are coming to an end.
China markets continued its rebound on Monday in a sign of growing confidence that credit conditions were improving as cash rates extended their decline from peaks reached during June’s credit crunch.
Speaking at the last leg of his weeklong Africa tour, U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday called for stronger and more effective economic partnerships with Africa, one that would help sustain the region’s fast growing economic growth while extending the benefits to as many people as possible.
The German government on Monday said large-scale U.S. spying on the European Union, if confirmed, is unacceptable and urged Washington to restore trust in the wake of the damaging allegations.
Speaking at a press conference, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Steibert said the government had learnt with “astonishment, better said with great displeasure” the extent of U.S. spying activities on the European Union after an exposé by German news weekly Der Spiegel.
Acknowledging that austerity measures across Europe are “painful”, head of International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde said she hopes that the Fund’s work will one day be appreciated and be judged over the longer term, noting the IMF’s policy success during the Asian crisis in the late 1990s.
In a climate of fierce opposition to austerity measures in Europe, Lagarde said that only time will allow the merits of the International Monetary Fund’s role in the region, where it is engaged in four state bailouts, to be understood.
This week, Croatia officially joins the European Union while the North Korean nuclear and missile threat is the subject of an ASEAN security forum.
Monday, July 1
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum continues its security forum in Brunei. Japan, the U.S. and South Korea are arranging a meeting of foreign ministers on the sidelines to confirm their unity on the North Korean nuclear and missile threat.
The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, with 56 participating states, holds its parliamentary assembly in Istanbul.
