In Wednesday's Europe papers

21 November 2007 06:00  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--These were the top stories at 06:00 GMT in the following European newspapers’ online versions on Wednesday. ICIS has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. To go to the individual websites, click the links below:

Financial Times
Front page

Fed cool on long-term growth forecast
The Federal Reserve on Tuesday revealed it no longer believed the US economy can grow much more than 2.5% a year without causing rising inflation, a lower rate than many investors thought was sustainable.

Malaysia’s Proton ends partnership talks
Proton, the Malaysian carmaker, said on Tuesday that it had ended partnership talks with Volkswagen and General Motors, raising doubts about the long-term survival of the troubled state-owned venture.

Companies and markets

Oil closes on $100/bbl level
Crude oil prices on Wednesday rose to striking distance of the $100(€67)/bbl level, boosted by the tumbling US dollar and fears of another drop in inventories, while gold prices rose above the $800-an-ounce mark.

Home lender shares slump on Freddie Mac loss
Shares of leading US home lenders plunged on Tuesday after Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage company, revealed a $2bn (€1.3bn) loss, its largest ever, and said it would have to raise more capital to meet its regulatory requirements.

International Herald Tribune
Front page

In Bangladesh, picking through the pieces
The wind whipped through the sky. The river swelled above the tree line. And in a flash, Mamataz Begum's youngest child, barely 2 years old, was swept from her arms, as a tidal wave smashed through the fragile mud homes of this village and scooped up everything in its watery arms.

A stem cell breakthrough, without embryos
Two teams of scientists reported Tuesday that they had turned human skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells without having to make or destroy an embryo--a feat that could quell the ethical debate troubling the field.

Marketplace

Proposed cuts in EU farm subsidies raise British and German ire
Britain and Germany combined forces on Tuesday to try to block moves to cut European farm subsidies to big landowners, including Queen Elizabeth II and communist-era East German collective farms.

Fed pares US growth forecast and describes October rate cut as 'close call'
Policy makers at the Federal Reserve expect the US economy to keep expanding over the next year, but they have lowered their forecasts and are much more uncertain about the outlook than just four months ago, the central bank reported Tuesday.

The Moscow Times
Front page

Narrowing it down to one window
When Ulya Kustova's international passport expired this summer, she knew that getting a new one was likely to be a cumbersome process. But the ordeal that followed was even worse than she had imagined and provides a perfect case study of a plague that experts say the country will not be able to eradicate any time soon: bureaucracy.

Putin talking adequate response to NATO
President Vladimir Putin told an annual gathering of the nation's military top brass Tuesday that an appropriate response to "muscle-flexing" by NATO is crucial when setting guidelines for development of the armed forces.

Business

Ford shuts strikers out of its plant
Workers at Ford's plant near St Petersburg began an indefinite strike Tuesday, as a dispute worsened between management and the plant's union over pay and conditions.

Petro-Canada urges LNG plant approval
Canadian oil and gas firm Petro-Canada on Tuesday urged potential partner Gazprom to approve a plan to build a $3.5bn (€2.3bn) liquefied natural gas plant on the Baltic Sea to capitalize on the decline of the product's supply in North America.

Der Spiegel
Front page

Poland's post-election road back to Europe
Radek Sikorski has rammed a sign into the ground in front of his property near the town of Bydgoszcz. "De-Communized Zone," it reads. It's been a full 16 years since the collapse of the Soviet bloc, but such a clear break with the country's socialist past remains an important credential for a Polish politician to have.

'They are dying in our arms'
More dire than the situation in Darfur--that's how United Nations officials are describing the worsening humanitarian crisis in Somalia. The UN refugee agency said Tuesday that the fighting has forced 1 million people to flee their homes.

Turkish Daily
Front page

Childhood not child's play
Last month in the southeastern province of Sanlıurfa, a father strangled his 13-year-old son to death, as the child could not find a job to support the family. A few weeks later, police in the Mediterranean city of Antalya saved a 16-year-old at the beginning of this month from the grips of a man who was forcing him to steal and beating him on the street.

Dubai eyes US property, assets after credit crisis
The Dubai government agency that invested in Deutsche Bank this year said it was looking to buy property, telecom and energy assets in the US after the mortgages crisis there drove down prices.

Business and finance

Turkey's giants eye energy sector
Lucrative days await the energy sector, the target sector for many Turkish conglomerates that have increasingly been meeting with foreign companies to discuss possible partnerships.

Barratt says housing market tight, trading in line
British housebuilder Barratt Developments kept its first-half guidance on Monday and said the UK housing market had tightened, as anticipated due to higher interest rates and financial market turmoil.

Warsaw Business Journal
Front page

Christmas to be a fifth more expensive than last year
Dziennik warned that the upcoming Christmas holidays will be the most expensive Christmas for many years, and that the expenses will be one fifth higher than last year.

Double digit industrial growth figures shock analysts
Industrial output returned to a double digit growth in October and surprised analysts reaching 10.6% compared to 8.6% in the same month of the previous year.

ICIS Copyright © Reed Business Information 2009

Author: Staff Reporter
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