Obama-Sarkozy: a love affair?

In another instance of governments cracking down on tax evaders in hard economic times, France has asked Swiss authorities for help determining whether 353 French clients of the Swiss bank, UBS, were trying to cheat the taxman by having undeclared assets in Switzerland. On Wednesday May 15, official figures from the EU's statistics office showed the French economy had contracted by 0.2% in the first quarter of this year, officially entering a recession.

With only one month to go before the Confederations Cup, Rio’s Maracana stadium is still not finished. Originally supposed to be up and running in December, then February, the Maracana had a gentle test in April when a game was played in front of an invited crowd of some 27,000 stadium workers and their families. A more rigorous test set for May 15 was cancelled, giving more time to get everything right for the friendly between Brazil and England on June 2nd.