The number of US workers filing new claims for jobless benefits jumped last week after three straight declines, the Labour Department said on Thursday. First-time claims rose by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 472,000, the highest level in a month.
Swiss lawmakers approved Thursday a UBS tax treaty with the US, ending a two-year legal battle that threatened the American business of Switzerland’s largest bank. The vote removed the threat of further civil litigation against UBS and additional fallout under US criminal law.
The number of Chileans travelling to Europe is up sharply, thanks to the lower value of the Euro – down 9.74% between January and February of this year – which makes travel to Europe more attractive.
Church leaders in Northern Ireland have launched a bitter attack on the ‘shocking’ lending polices of some banks, claiming they are putting ‘decent’ businesses and people at risk.
The International Monetary Fund welcomed the results of a Spanish bond auction and said decisions by Spain and Germany to publish results of stress tests on banks will boost financial market confidence.
Argentine activists voted Wednesday night to temporarily lift the roadblock on a bridge leading to Uruguay which has been at the heart of a diplomatic dispute between the two countries regarding the construction of a pulp mill on the Uruguayan side which allegedly contaminates.
A new chapter of the Argentine escalation of the Falklands/Malvinas sovereignty dispute is scheduled for next week at the United Nations Decolonization Committee or C24.
The Spanish government Wednesday approved a reform to make the labour market more flexible, amid growing international concern over the stability of the country's economy.
Brazilian retail sales declined 3% month-on-month in April, with only two of the ten surveyed sales components recording gains, the statistical agency IBGE said Wednesday. Economists were expecting sales to drop at a much slower rate of 1.6%.
A Scotch whisky matured for more than six decades sold for 25,200 pounds ($37,245) at an Edinburgh auction Wednesday as collectors vied for rare malts.