Stock markets across Europe regained some poise on Thursday after Italy’s new leader survived a make-or-break vote on his austerity plan and investors snapped up bank shares after emergency funds for the financial system were made available.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti’s decision to link an Italian senate vote on his 33 billion euro (US$43.1 billion) budget package to a vote of confidence risked plunging the country into fresh political chaos. However, he managed to get the plan approved and will now set about balancing Italy’s budget by 2013.
The program includes higher value-added tax rates, a local housing tax, health spending cuts, an increase in the state pension age to 66 and a higher retirement age. Trade unions said the burden would fall heavily on the poorest in Italian society.
Photo: Reuters
Meanwhile, there were signs of growing discontent in Greece, where hearse owners became the latest to demonstrate their grievances, by staging protest drives through the country’s two main cities. They are worried that a sharp rise in annual road taxes could put them out of business. The -protesters say their cars have been reclassified as private instead of business vehicles, which means they will pay up to six times more in road tax.
“How can you call a hearse a regular car? Our passengers are deceased,” said protester Aris Karvounidis, a member of the Funeral Services Association of Northern Greece.
However, the tone was somewhat more upbeat on financial markets, where the FTSE 100 in London added 1.3 percent, France’s CAC40 gained 1.4 percent and Germany’s DAX rose 1.1 percent. Banking stocks were in demand as investors reassessed the strong take-up of loans from the European Central Bank on Wednesday as at least providing some liquidity, even if it did highlight the precarious state of the financial sector.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the