In Monday's Europe papers

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

FINANCIAL TIMES

Front page

Georgia ceasefire fails to halt Russian attack
Georgia on Sunday said it was pulling its troops out of the separatist province of South Ossetia but its appeals for a ceasefire in the widening conflict in the Caucasus failed to halt Russia’s mounting military response.

China to overtake US as largest manufacturer
China is set to overtake the US next year as the world’s largest producer of manufactured goods, four years earlier than expected, as a result of the rapidly weakening US economy.

Companies and markets

First tech float in months fails to boost sector
Wall Street saw its first market listing by an information technology company in six months on Friday, although analysts said the weak reception for the stock showed that the window for tech start-ups to access the public markets was still generally closed.

Overview: Dollar rallies while oil slides
Mounting optimism that the US economy would outperform the rest of the developed world pushed the dollar to multi-month highs against leading currencies this week as the oil price resumed its downward path, providing support for equity markets.

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

Front page

New spasm of violence in western China as 11 die in wave of bombings
The violence in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang rose sharply Sunday morning with the deaths of a security guard and at least 10 suspects after a daring series of bombings that began with a predawn assault on a police station, the state news media reported.

Russians push past separatist area to assault central Georgia
Russia expanded its attacks on Georgia on Sunday, moving tanks and troops through the separatist enclave of South Ossetia and advancing toward the city of Gori in central Georgia, in its first direct assault on a Georgian city with ground forces during three days of heavy fighting, Georgian officials said.

Marketplace

American-style credit ensnares consumers overseas
In Turkey, where borrowing money was until very recently a family affair, being in debt carried a fearful stigma. Some here even likened it to the disgrace that drives people to commit the honor killings that still occur in parts of this society.

For ad agencies, the Asian prize is India
The quest for gold got under way in Beijing on Friday, but some advertising executives think the real marketing medal may be won elsewhere in Asia - in India.

THE MOSCOW TIMES

Front page

Georgia offers cease-fire and talks
Georgia said Sunday that it had withdrawn its army from South Ossetia and offered a cease-fire after two days of all-out war over the breakaway region, claiming overwhelming Russian military might and warning that Moscow was opening up a second front in Abkhazia.

Fighting sends stocks tumbling
The sudden ferocity of the fighting in South Ossetia took investors aback Friday, sending Moscow stock markets spiraling downward as some saw the slide toward war as a good excuse to dump Russian risk altogether.

Business

Norilsk Nickel elects Strzhalkovsky as CEO
Norilsk Nickel’s board of directors elected Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, a former KGB officer and longtime friend of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s, as chief executive on Friday. 

Central Bank says ruble is no longer a one-way bet
The ruble is no longer a one-way appreciation bet for investors, a senior Central Bank official said Friday after the currency fell 1% against the dollar-euro basket.

DER SPIEGEL

Front page

Is this the first war between Russia and a former Soviet state?
The world is looking to the Caucasus region with dismay. President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia has sent his country's forces into the breakaway region of South Ossetia, and its protector, Russia, has retaliated by sending in tanks and aircraft. Is a region that is home to all of 75,000 people about to become the scene of a hot war?

Bitter fighting continues in caucuses
In the war between Russia and Georgia, intense fighting continued on Saturday. Both sides are accusing the other of "ethnic cleansing." Georgia is claiming that Russia tried to attack an important pipeline that delivers oil to the West and that civilians have been killed.

TURKISH DAILY

Front page

Russian military rolls Georgia
Tensions over Georgia's rebel territory of South Ossetia exploded Friday when Georgia tried to assert control over the region with tanks and rockets, while Russia sent forces to repel the assault.

An Improvisational Istanbul visit
In a cramped corridor of Istanbul's Dolmabahce palace, the guide was sputtering on about Ottomans' reverence for God, fancy toilets and keeping women in line while lobbing ten-cent come-ons to foreign women in the group.

Business and finance

OECD sees growth easing in top economies
The warning fits the picture of sharp slowdown in many advanced countries which has emerged so far this year as the repercussions of the credit crisis, and high oil prices, reached ever deeper into activity and lending.

No offer made on theme park land
None of the investors that attended an auction Thursday for the sale of 95 plots of land owned by Turkey's Mass Housing Administration, or TOKI, made an offer on a 3.8-square-kilometer park in Ankara's Ballıkuyumcu district. TOKI put the land for sale on the condition that a theme park would be opened on it.

WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL

Front page

Going for the zlote medale
The 2008 Summer Olympic Games are about to get underway and the Polish athletes are preparing to represent their country before the world. Poland has sent around 263 athletes to Beijing - 103 women and 160 men - as well as more than a hundred trainers, support staff and dignitaries. This constitutes its largest Olympic delegation since the early 1980s.

Train crash kills seven and injures many
At least seven people are dead many wounded when a EuroCity train headed from Kraków to Prauge crashed into a collapsed bridge on Friday, according to local authorities

By: Staff Reporter
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