U.K. police were forced to shut down numerous petrol stations across the nation on Thursday, after motorists went into a panic-buying spree – that began on Wednesday – following a strike threat by fuel tanker drivers.
According to the BBC, petrol sales in the U.K. went up by 81 percent on Wednesday, with diesel up by 43 percent, as motorists queued for hours in order to stockpile their gas supply.
Italians were left shocked on Thursday after two men – in separate incidents – publicly set themselves on fire as part of a suicide attempt, following months of pressure from government officials over unpaid taxes.
Overseas investors in the Japanese government bond market have sold more than 2 trillion yen ($24 billion) in bonds over the last two weeks, claimed the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, as concerns continue to grow over Japan’s national debt level.
Pope Benedict XVI, on a ‘spiritual pilgrimage’ to Cuba, has criticised the US trade embargo on Cuba, saying it has ‘unfairly burdened’ Cubans.
At his farewell speech in Havana’s Revolution Plaza, the Pope made several references to what he saw as the need for ‘authentic freedom’.
Even before he arrived in Cuba, the Pope had been reiterating the call for freedom, brotherhood and reconciliation, as well as references to prisoners and those ‘deprived of freedom’.
Finance ministers from the BRICS bloc have raised the idea of setting up a common development bank. This comes at the time when many questions have been raised over the group’s ability to function as a cohesive policy bloc.
Leaders from the five-nation bloc arrived in New Delhi yesterday for their annual summit. On the agenda, the emerging nations are expected to unveil closer trade and investment initiatives.
The International Finance Corporation, the World Bank’s private-sector lending arm, will invest up to $3.5 billion in Sub-Saharan Africa this year, claimed a report by Reuters on Wednesday, as the organisation prepares to spend more cash in building up the region’s infrastructure sector.
High-end escorts in the Spanish capital of Madrid are refusing to have sex with employees in the banking industry, said a report by the International Business Times on Wednesday, unless their banks opened up credit lines for cash-strapped families and firms.
The UK media has reported that the Gulf state is interested in purchasing a £10 billion ($16 billion) stake in the bailed-out Royal Bank of Scotland. According to sources contacted by the media, the discussions have been held regularly over the past three years.
The news, first reported by the BBC on Monday, suggested the sale was likely to be loss-making, as RBS shares currently trade at a much lower price than what the UK government paid in the 2008 bailout.
China’s biggest airlines have seen their profits plummet in recent months, claimed a report by the Financial Times on Tuesday, with most companies unable to hedge against rising oil prices due to a three-year old government ban on crude future contracts.
According to FT, profits for Air China and China Eastern fell by 38.8 percent and 9.1 percent respectively last year, as growing fuel costs continue to leave a dent on companies’ expense sheets.
The eurozone remains stuck in a delicate balance in its recovery phase, but the risk of contagion remains extremely high. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, eurozone leaders need to increase the financial firewall to 1 trillion euros to boost market confidence.
Speaking at a news conference in Brussels, Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the Paris-based organisation said that the existing firewall is not sufficient given the current state of the eurozone economies.
