Officials at India’s top drug regulatory agency have been accused of colluding with major international pharmaceutical companies in order to bring in medication that had been previously banned overseas.
London’s finance sector is facing a 16-year low in the number of available jobs, said the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) on Wednesday, with the eurozone crisis expected to cause over 25,000 layoffs in 2012.
According to the CEBR, finance sector jobs in the U.K. capital was now estimated to fall to just 255,000 this year, compared to a previous estimate of 288,000 made just six months ago and down from the 280,350 jobs reported last year.
Companies in Japan are rushing to introduce more products geared towards the elderly, said Bloomberg News on Wednesday, as the country continues to face a rapidly aging population.
According to a study by the Japanese Health Ministry, the number of Japanese over the age of 65 hit a record 23.3 percent of the population (29.8 million) last October, with this percentage expected to grow to 40 percent by 2055.
The U.S. Federal Reserve has given permission to three Chinese state-backed banks to set up branches within the U.S., said Reuters on Wednesday – effectively clearing the way for the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to purchase a majority stake in the U.S. subsidiary of Bank of East Asia.
Financial concerns often prove to be a stumbling block for marriages. Apart from the sheer cost of holding the ceremony, getting married often means that an individual will have to start bearing the debt of his/her partner.
Unfortunately, some marriages are unhappy or fail because an individual may bring his/her partner significant debt, including student loans and credit card balances. Worse still, there have been instances where one partner may lie about his/her own financial burdens.
The Brazilian government will issue free tickets for the upcoming 2014 World Cup Finals to its poor and indigenous people, said The Independent on Tuesday, with authorities planning to do the same for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Mexico’s Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, has embarked on his first major investment in Europe – a $3.4 billion (28 percent) stake in Dutch Telecom company Royal KPN – and is apparently ready to snap up more troubled assets in the region, said the Financial Times on Wednesday.
Greece’s status in the European Union has once again been thrown into doubt, after Coalition of the Radical Left leader Alexis Tsipras – who was handed a mandate to form a coalition government late Tuesday – vowed to rip up the nation’s bailout agreement with its debtors and cancel all austerity cuts and reforms.
Groupon has regularly gotten into trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over their financial performance. In April this year, the SEC was believed to be ready to launch a formal investigation into the company’s accounting results, while shares in Groupon has since plunged by more than half since its IPO last November.
Check out this infographic, which tracks Groupon’s troubled history and uncovers the reason why the company persistently has accounting difficulties.
Thousands of drug capsules filled with powdered flesh from dead babies are being smuggled into South Korea from China every year, said a report by the BBC on Monday, as customs officials attempt to curb the illegal trade by increasing inspections on all drug shipments.
Since August 2011, Korea Customs Service has confiscated almost 17,500 of the capsules being smuggled from China, with the “drug” said to be a panacea for all sorts of diseases, as well as a renowned stamina booster.
