Citigroup has agreed to pay $730 million to settle claims that it misled bondholders of its exposure to subprime mortgages and other high-risk securities during the financial crisis. Citi has denied any wrongdoing but said it agreed to the settlement to “eliminate uncertainties”.
Nepal could eradicate poverty within the next 20 years if its poverty reduction rate continues on its current level of progress, said an Oxford University study published on Monday, citing “social policy investments combined with active civil society engagement” for the Himalayan state’s present success.
The shrinking ice caps in the Arctic may have opened a new shipping route worth up to $700 billion between China, Europe and the U.S. by 2020, said a leading Chinese scientist last week, with a shipping firm expected to launch China’s first commercial arctic voyage this year – cutting travel distance by nearly half.
Eurozone leaders on Saturday agreed to hand Cyprus a bailout worth 10 billion euros but on the condition that local savers forfeit up to 10 percent of their deposits to stave off a sovereign bankruptcy.
Under a controversial deal struck with international bailout lenders after all-night Friday talks, all deposits in the island’s banks will be hit with a levy as a condition for a desperately needed 10 billion euros bailout.
The fallout from Saturday’s deal to bailout Cyprus is expected to extend to global markets this week, renewing fears over the euro and regional stability. In the United States, both the President and VP will be out of the country on the same day, at least for a few hours – a rarity in itself.
Monday, March 18
Saudi Arabia’s Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal has threatened legal action against Forbes Magazine for its annual rich list, reported The Telegraph, following insinuations that the Prince’s true wealth was $9.6 billion less than his own estimates, on account of alleged “market manipulation” in the Kingdom’s stock exchange.
China, over the last decade, saw a 162 percent increase in its weapons exports, said a report by a Swedish think-tank on Monday, marking the first time the nation has been among the world’s top five arms exporters since the end of the cold war.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), China supplied close to 5 percent of all arms exported from 2008-2012, with the U.S. occupying the top spot (30 percent) ahead of Russia (26 percent), Germany (7 percent), and France (6 percent).
The developing world’s rapid growth has sharply cut extreme poverty and by 2030, up to 80 percent of the world’s middle class will be from developing countries, said a United Nations report published on Thursday.
According to the world body, higher economic growth in at least 40 developing countries has help lift hundreds of millions of people from poverty, and pushed billions more into a new global middle class.
The European Union summit opened on Thursday where leaders will try to find a difficult balance between fiscal tightening and growth, as thousands of anti-austerity protesters took to the streets yesterday demanding an end to austerity cuts in response to the region’s worsening socioeconomic crisis.
European leaders gathered in Brussels yesterday, for once under little financial market pressure, with differences over austerity and how best to tackle the social costs of the debt crisis set to dominate.
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is urging nearly 1 million Americans to file their federal tax returns for 2009 by April 15 or risk losing out on $917 million in unclaimed tax refunds, reported the Associated Press on Friday, with about half of the potential refunds larger than $500, estimated the agency.
