In Wednesday's Europe papers

07 January 2009 05:30  [Source: ICIS news]

FINANCIAL TIMES

Front page

Gaza ceasefire plan gains support
A ceasefire plan by Egypt emerged on Tuesday night as the most favoured option for bringing an early end to the bloodshed in Gaza after a day in which at least 33 Palestinians died in the shelling of three United Nations-run schools.

Darling in new alert on depth of recession
Alistair Darling warned on Tuesday that Britain was “far from through” the recession, in a clear signal that he will have to abandon the government’s forecast that the recovery would start in the second half of this year.

Companies and markets

Apple brings in variable pricing on iTunes
Apple and the music industry have settled their biggest differences, with the iPod maker agreeing to allow variable pricing on its iTunes digital music store and the largest record labels dropping restrictions which prevented tracks from being copied.

Overview: Equities push higher despite data gloom
The tentative optimism that has pervaded financial markets for much of the past week showed little sign of abating in spite of the release of a string of disappointing economic reports.

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

Front page

For Israel, lessons learned from 2006, but old pitfalls
This time, Israeli military commanders are leading from the front, not trying to direct the infantry from television screens.

Gazprom slashes gas supplies to Europe
Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, halted nearly its entire export of natural gas to Europe on Tuesday in a sharp escalation of a dispute over prices with neighbouring Ukraine that also underscored Russia’s increasingly confrontational stance toward the West.

Marketplace

Madoff ties bring down a brash Viennese banker
With an aggressive style that stood out in the staid world of Austrian banking even more than her bouffant red wig, Sonja Kohn made few friends gathering billions for Bernard Madoff from wealthy investors in Russia and across Europe.

Apple drops anti-copying measures in iTunes
In moves that will help shape the online future of the music business, Apple said on Tuesday that it would remove anti-copying restrictions on all of the songs in its popular iTunes store and allow record companies to set a range of prices for them.

THE MOSCOW TIMES

Front page

Voloshin named Norilsk chairman
In a sign the Kremlin is continuing to enhance its holdings and role in the economy, former presidential administration head Alexander Voloshin was elected on Friday as chairman of Norilsk Nickel, the country’s biggest mining company.

Building ads leave many in the dark
Her nose is pressed firmly against the street-side window of her Tverskaya apartment. Her eyes dance through a maze of metal bars, wood planks and endless rows and columns of punched-out vinyl holes as she strains to make out forms below.

Business

VEB will purchase new OGK-1 shares
Vneshekonombank will buy up an additional share issue from OGK-1 for 17bn rubles ($587m) to help the company meet its investment plan next year, but it will be at least three months before the money becomes available, the generator's chief executive said.

Kudrin says outlays will stay as planned
The country should not slash its oil export duty to zero and will keep on track its 2009 spending plans drafted during years of economic boom, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Saturday.

DER SPIEGEL

Front page

In the globalized crisis, everyone shares the pain
The upheaval in the financial markets has sent shock waves around the globe. Economies in North America, Europe and Asia are closely connected - for better or for worse. But now the threat of a new protectionism is taking shape.

Germany sinks into spectacular deep freeze
Temperatures in Germany fell as low as minus 25 degrees Celsius on Monday night and the weather is expected to remain Arctic for several days.

HURRIYET DAILY

Front page

Running the risk of fiery rhetoric
The escalating rhetoric of the Prime Minister’s criticism of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza is drowning out the reaction of some Arab leaders, while threatening Turkey’s stance as mediator, not least in the eyes of Israel.

Opposition not satisfied with Erdoğan’s initiatives
Despite their condemnation of Israel’s Gaza strikes that match Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s tone, opposition members rebuffed the Prime Minister’s efforts to broker a cease-fire as insincere and hollow, during speeches in Parliament on Tuesday.

Business and finance

Interest rates to drop in Turkey, claims Deutsche Bank
Turkey’s Central Bank will lower interest rates by three percentage points in the next four months as inflation pressure weakens, according to Cem Akyürek, an economist at Deutsche Bank in Istanbul.

Leading industrial city capsizes in crisis
Adana, one of Turkey’s leading industry centers, with export figures of $1.8bn, has been hit hard by the crisis.

WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL

Front page

Shopping arcades to close
Traders in Warsaw’s KDT indoor market on the grounds of the Palace of Culture and Science continue to do business despite the fact that city authorities ordered that the market be closed permanently on December 31.

Things are looking up?
The first day of trade on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) of 2009 was characterised by optimism as the blue-chip WIG20 index gained 4.9% and the wider WIG went up by 4.05%. Turnover remained low, amounting to zł.780m.

By: Staff Reporter
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