In Tuesday's Europe papers

05 August 2008 06:00  [Source: ICIS news]

FINANCIAL TIMES

Front page

Hasina’s party leads in Bangladesh vote
Unofficial results from local elections in Bangladesh showed that followers of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina won almost all the positions in a free, fair and peaceful vote, poll officials said.

RenCap Cuts RTS '08 Target to 2,350
Renaissance Capital on Monday slashed its year-end forecast for the benchmark RTS Index from 3,000 to 2,350 and increased its equity risk premium for the country from 4% to 5.5% in a sign of continued investor jitters.

Companies and markets

Greenspan warns of more bank bail-outs
More banks and financial institutions could end up being bailed out by governments before the credit crisis is over, Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, warns in an article in Tuesday’s Financial Times.

Vietnam tells companies to absorb cost rises
Vietnam announced tough measures to contain rampant inflation on Monday, warning companies they could be prosecuted for passing on higher commodity costs to customers.

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

Front page

Bosnia fugitive is hero to some, butcher to others
Ratko Mladic, accused in Europe's worst massacre since World War II and now the most wanted fugitive for the atrocities in the Balkan wars, grew up in this poor, remote mountain village that is blanketed with crows.

Getting in shape for Games, China strengthens ties with neighbors
Until recently, the sight of a Japanese warship steaming toward Chinese shores or of a Chinese aircraft swooping low over Taiwan would have provoked alarm across Asia.

Marketplace

European governments hesitate on pension cuts
In fits and starts, European governments have sought to respond to the fiscal time bomb posed by the alarmingly fast-growing pool of retirees on the Continent. But maintaining the momentum to keep the pension systems afloat is proving difficult these days.

A post-Olympics slump for China?
China's post-Olympics economic slowdown has started before the Games have even begun. New orders at Chinese factories plunged last month. Exports are barely growing, after adjusting for inflation and currency fluctuations.

THE MOSCOW TIMES

Front page

Literary giant Solzhenitsyn dead at 89
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Nobel Prize-winning author who shook the foundations of Soviet rule with his monumental work “The Gulag Archipelago,” died late Sunday in his Moscow region home, his son said. He was 89 years old.

TNK-BP conflict forces out CFO
TNK-BP’s chief financial officer resigned Monday, saying a dispute between the company’s British and Russian owners prevented him for fulfilling his duties.

Business

RenCap cuts RTS 2008 target to 2,350
Renaissance Capital on Monday slashed its year-end forecast for the benchmark RTS Index from 3,000 to 2,350 and increased its equity risk premium for the country from 4 percent to 5.5 percent in a sign of continued investor jitters.

Ladas out but the waiting list is still long
While more Russians now have the money, or credit, to buy expensive foreign cars, some resort to bribes to get around the waiting lists. 

DER SPIEGEL

Front page

China's summer of living dangerously
The Chinese Communist regime's had planned to stage the 2008 Olympic Games as a triumphant celebration of itself as a model of success. But anyone traveling through the country's provinces will encounter a crumbling realm threatened by forces released by its economic boom.

Welcome to Berlin's new Stasi-themed bar
A security camera over the door, an interrogation table in the corner, ID cards for regulars: a Stasi-themed bar opened in Berlin within spitting distance of the former East German Ministry of State Security. The two owners call it satire, but not everyone is amused.

TURKISH DAILY

Front page

Confession pins bombing on PKK
Finding those responsible for the 27 July explosions in Istanbul's Gungoren district that killed 17 people and wounded 154 others came about as the result of a confession by the man accused of carrying out the attack. According to the interior minister, the terrorist group responsible for the attack was the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

EU reforms are the best remedy for post-case era
President Abdullah Gul urged the ruling Justice and Development Party, to revive the reform process aimed at aligning the country with the democratic norms of the EU, days after the party narrowly escaped closure by the top court.

Business and finance

Meat plant in the east faces closure
An integrated meat facility in the eastern city of Erzurum, which was opened around 18 years ago with a $70m (€44.8m)investment and a ceremony by late President Turgut Ozal, now faces the threat of closure, leading many to believe that with current policies Turkey has no chance of bridging the country's economic east-west divide.

Firms raise $31.3bn for real estate funds
Private equity firms led by MGPA and Carlyle Group raised $31.3bn (€20bn) for real estate funds around the world in the second quarter, the second-best quarterly fundraising ever, according to a global survey released Friday.

WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL

Front page

Shipyard bankruptcy will affect some 800 firms
The bankruptcy of Polish shipyards will not only affect those employed there, but also the fall of some 800 mid-sized companies, both domestic and international, employing 100,000 workers.

LOT threatened with bankruptcy?
Polish airlines LOT, along with 50 other European airlines, face a crisis this winter as higher fuel prices may lead the carriers to bankruptcy. Douglas McNeill, an aviation analyst with Blue Oar Securities said in a report Into Thin Air that the situation on the aviation market is so bad that only large airlines have chances of survival.

By: Staff Reporter
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