The Russian government are speeding up a 58-billion-ruble ($2 billion) program to protect the nation against threats from outer space, claimed Russia Today News on Tuesday, after a meteor crashed into a community in the Ural mountains last week, injuring at least 950 people – and earning international attention thanks to online viral footage.
Europe’s largest economy, Germany, will return to growth in the first quarter of 2013, predicted the Bundesbank on Monday, alleviating fears of a technical recession, after its GDP contracted by 0.6 percent in the last quarter of 2012.
The Bundesbank’s monthly report for February forecasted that the rest of 2013 would see a gradual pick-up in economic activity for Germany; though severe recessions in other euro member countries may continue to dampen regional growth, it said.
European Union officials are considering further curbs on bankers’ remuneration, banning upfront cash bonuses that exceed annual salaries. The move is backed by a majority of nations including Germany and France, much to the dismay of Britain.
The proposal, part of a drive to implement the so-called Basel III Rules aimed at preventing a repeat of the 2007-09 crisis, would hold banks to a 1:1 bonus to salary ratio, with the possibility of being raised to 2:1 with the backing of a supermajority of shareholders, reported the Financial TImes on Sunday.
Barely two weeks remain before $1.2 trillion of automatic budget cuts are triggered should US politicians fail to reach a deal on the so-called sequester. Over in Europe, elections take place in Italy at the end of the week, where polls show anti-austerity Silvio Berlusconi only narrowly losing out to Pier Luigi Bersani’s centre-left Democratic Party.
Monday, February 18
Prime Minister of Mali, Diango Cissoko, visits the European Commission in Brussels for talks on his country’s humanitarian situation.
Chinese consumers rang in the Year of the Snake by spending over 539 billion yuan ($86.3 billion) from Lunar New Year’s eve until the 6th day of the Chinese New Year, showed data from the Ministry of Finance on Sunday, marking a 14.7 percent increase from the same period last year.
The finances of the British Royal Family may come under scrutiny by the government later this year, reported The Guardian last week, after a group of MPs challenged the tax exemptions enjoyed by the monarchy, particularly those of Prince Charles, the heir to the throne.
The United States has criticised the European Commission’s proposal to introduce an international financial trading tax, arguing that the so-called Robin Hood tax overreaches borders and flouts international treaties on global trade.
The European Commission on Thursday unveiled a 35 billion euros ($47 billion) levy on financial transactions which will be collected by 11 of the eurozone’s largest economies, including Germany and France, but applies to all trades in the world’s main financial centres.
Foreign investors in renewable energy projects in Spain are considering legal action against the government for cutting subsidies on alternative energy technologies, reported Reuters on Thursday, after claiming that the government’s new rules broke the terms of their investment contracts; and may result in virtually no profit for renewable energy plants.
Cheap and open access to the internet is one of the main equalising tools of our generation. Unfortunately, considerably fewer women have access to the internet than men, especially in the developing world.
Women and girls lag behind men in internet access in many parts of the world, causing them to miss out on the economic and social benefits of being online, according to a study by Intel published in January.
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) last year paid a record $125.4 million to whistleblowers who provided evidence of tax cheating, reported Reuters on Wednesday, though most of the sum went to a former UBS banker who reported on his firm’s misdeeds.
According to an IRS statement, 332 whistleblowers had come forward in fiscal year 2012, compared to 312 the year before, though the number was still well below the high water mark of 472 in 2009.
