An Iranian court has sentenced four people to death for embezzling over $2.6 billion from half a dozen Iranian banks, reported Reuters on Monday, with the accused believed to have had close links with the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The recessionary period following the 2008 financial crisis has often been compared to the Great Depression in 1929. But how do these two financial events actually compare?
Check out this infographic, which highlights and compares key economic metrics in the United States both during Great Depression and the so-called “Great Recession” that we’re experiencing now – including unemployment rates, bank failures and state spending.
Nearly 360 million residents in North India woke up to no electricity early Monday morning, reported Bloomberg News, after a massive grid failure in the capital of Delhi had cut off all power supplies, shutting down numerous transport networks in the process.
Global spending by Muslim tourists is expected to reach $192 billion a year by 2020, claimed a new study cited by AFP on Monday, with the growing affluence of Muslims in the Middle East set to spark a boom in Muslim travel over the next decade.
Indonesia’s government is reportedly planning to merge its three time zones into a Unified Indonesia Time (Waktu Indonesia Bersatu), said Khabar Online on Monday, in a move that could synchronise Indonesia’s clocks with those of other regional economies such as Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
As the London Olympics are finally upon us, we take a look at some of the major costs that have gone into hosting the games.
The 2012 Summer Olympics are expected to be one of the most expensive games in history, with the current budget hovering around the range of some $13 billion now, a 101 percent increase from the budget presented at London’s initial bid.
While it is nowhere near as expensive as its extravagant Beijing predecessor, researchers say the budget overrun could far exceed the average Olympic overruns we’ve seen in the last 50 years.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has promised to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro, raising expectations that the bank will soon step in to soothe jittered investors and markets that have sent borrowing costs soaring for countries like Spain and Italy.
The remarks were made during a question-and-answer session at the Global Investment Conference organised by the UK government to mark the start of the London 2012 Olympics.
China National Offshore Oil Corporation’s (CNOOC) $15.1 billion takeover of Canadian oil company Nexen may be under threat, reported Reuters on Thursday, after a top U.S. senator urged his government to block the deal until the Chinese government made “tangible, enforceable commitments” for U.S. companies investing in China.
Public sector unions in Brazil are demanding nearly 92 billion reais ($45.3 billion) worth of salary increases for all of the country’s civil servants, reported Reuters on Thursday, after claiming that the current government employee pay scale was not an accurate reflection of Brazil’s economic growth over the last decade.
From 2001 to 2010, the Brazilian economy had grown by an average of 4 percent each year, with government revenues tripling during the period.
Mexican regulators have slapped a $27.5 million fine on the local unit of HSBC for its lax controls that allowed Mexican drug money to pass through the bank. HSBC Mexico has acknowledged its failures in money-laundering regulation.
Mexico’s National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) levied the fine against HSBC Mexico for its “non-compliance with anti-money laundering systems and controls” as well as its late reporting of 1,729 unusual transactions, failing to report 39 unusual transactions, and 21 administrative failures.
