US President Barack Obama signed an order Monday for new sanctions on all Iranian financial institutions, including its central bank. The measure allows US institutions to freeze Iranian state assets instead of simply rejecting the funds.
The American papers weigh in on where the GOP might go after the Florida primary - predicting a long fight can only boost Barack Obama, while tearing the Republicans apart. We also look at Syria, and the fall from grace of Fred the Shred.
British Prime Minister David Cameron might be at odds with Nicolas Sarkozy over the French president’s proposed "Tobin tax" on financial transactions. But it seems some in the French trading community agree with him.
British Prime Minister David Cameron warned Monday that France's banks will flee to Britain if French President Nicolas Sarkozy goes ahead with plans to levy a 0.1% tax on financial transactions. Cameron called the French tax proposal "mad".
Moody’s rating agency downgraded French banking giants BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole and Société Générale on Friday, pointing to funding problems and their exposure to the eurozone's worsening debt crisis.
Rating agency Standard & Poor's reduced credit ratings on 15 big banks Tuesday as a result of new criteria that allow the agency to change ratings quickly when it sees new threats to bank funding or sees governments reluctant to bailout creditors.
Egypt makes France's front pages, as protesters tell journalists the generals are now worse than Mubarak. A gruesome murder of a young girl has also captured a lot of press attention - as papers are furious that her attacker, awaiting trial for another offence, wasn't held in detention.
Britain’s finance ministry announced Thursday it had agreed to sell Northern Rock, a failed mortgage lender that was nationalised during the financial crisis in 2008, at a major loss to Virgin Money.
French banking giant Société Générale announced Tuesday that it was scrapping its 2011 dividend and cutting bonuses, after a tough third quarter owing to a Greek debt write-down. The move saw SocGen’s shares climb 6.1% by 1149 GMT.
Greece’s new interim prime minister, Lucas Papademos, has been described as accessible, modest and a man of reason. The question now is whether he has what it takes to lead his country out of its deep debt crisis.
