Thousands of Cyprus government workers held a three-hour strike Tuesday to protest a proposed two-year salary freeze they regard is unfair.
Even limited strikes are rare in the eurozone member of 800,000 people with a bloated public sector that takes up around a third of all government spending.
But trade unions said they were not adequately consulted in talks between the government and opposition parties _ which hold a majority in Parliament _ in hammering out the deal.
The strike closed schools early but did not affect airports, sea ports and hospitals.
In Nicosia, hundreds of protesters booed and mocked lawmakers entering and exiting parliament, and union leaders said they should have targeted tax dodgers and the rich, not public employees.
“We unreservedly say no to these false dilemmas that make workers easy prey, while provocatively leaving businesses, big capital and generally those who have untouched,” said Glafcos Hadjipetrou, boss of the PASYDY union.
Finance Minister Kikis Kazamias told union leaders they were left out of the talks because he needed a quick deal because the island faces sanctions under EU rules if it doesn’t agree on deficit-cutting measures by mid-December.
“This was something that shouldn’t be considered the rule, but rather the exception,” Kazamias said.
Cyprus is trying to slash its fiscal deficit and restore investor confidence following credit rating downgrades _ mainly due to its banks heavy exposure to debt-laden Greece _ that have brought it a step above junk status.
The island, with a euro18 billion ($23.8 billion) economy, has been largely locked out of international markets for loans to pay its bills and refinance its debt, as interest rates on its bonds have shot up as a result of the downgrades.
Cyprus is relying on a euro2.5 billion ($3.3 billion) loan from Russia at an interest rate much lower than what markets are offering to see it through until around middle of next year.
Austerity measures the government is trying to push through parliament include raising a sales tax from 15 to 17 percent, a scale-based levy on private sector salaries above euro2,500 ($3,312), reducing social benefits by euro200 million ($265 million) and reducing public sector positions.
Lawmakers will hold separate votes this week on the budget and additional austerity measures, which aim to shrink the deficit from the current 6.5 percent of gross domestic product to 2.4 percent.
Italian borrowing costs have dropped significantly in the latest market test of confidence in the country’s ability to manage its high debt.
Italy easily sold euro7 billion ($9.4 billion) in 12-month bonds on Monday at an interest rate of 5.92 percent, down from last month’s record of 6.087 percent.
The sale was held on the second “bond day” sponsored by the Italian Banker’s Association, which allowed private buyers to snap up public debt without the usual commission. Analysts said the move _ aimed at engendering confidence in the nation’s debt _ would help retail sales.
Also Monday, union leaders are calling for a three-hour strike to protest austerity measures that Premier Mario Monti hopes will save the country from financial ruin.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
ROME (AP) _ Union leaders in Italy are calling on workers to stage a three-hour strike to protest austerity measures that Premier Mario Monti hopes will save the country from financial ruin.
The union leaders say the measures hit too hard at pensioners and workers and not hard enough at the wealthy. Besides Monday’s strike, an afternoon rally is to be held outside Parliament, which is expected to pass the measures by Christmas.
Labor Minister Elsa Fornero said Sunday that some pension reforms might be softened, but that overall spending cuts must remain for the country to regain credibility on financial markets. An auction of 12-month bonds will test that credibility.
The strike forced Milan’s La Scala opera house to cancel a performance. Metalworkers were among those expected to strike.
In its 26-year history, Gateway Greening has helped transform the city’s landscape, building nearly 200 community and youth gardens, beautifying street medians and venturing into urban farming.
Now the organization has a new leader in Michael Sorth, who is trading his “old” life as an investment banker with Stifel Nicolaus & Co. for a new one in community gardening.
The transition, he says, will be drastic in some ways. Instead of millions, he’ll be dealing in smaller sums: Gateway Greening’s budget is about $800,000. But he views the position as a prime chance to make the city more self-sufficient, more sustainable, and a greener, more farm-friendly place to live
Stocks closed modestly higher Monday after a reported threat to Germany’s credit rating deflated a morning market rally. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 78 points, giving back much of a 167-point gain from earlier.
News reports Monday afternoon said Standard & Poor’s will put all nations that use the euro on “creditwatch negative,” meaning there is a 50-50 chance of a downgrade in the coming months. S&P had warned of possible rating demotions for many of the countries. But the inclusion on the list of Germany, Europe’s strongest economy, came as a surprise.
Stocks had risen strongly in the morning after the leaders of France and Germany called for a new treaty to impose greater fiscal discipline on European countries. Yields on Italian government bonds receded sharply after the new government of Mario Monti introduced sweeping austerity measures over the weekend. That suggests that traders believe Italy is less likely to default.
“There’s pent-up demand, and people will use any excuse to get back in, thinking there’s been too much pessimism,” said Brian Gendreau investment strategist with Cetera Financial Group. Despite strong signals about the U.S. economy, the market has been weighed down by negative headlines about the U.S. budget impasse, credit-rating downgrades of the U.S. and other nations, and Europe’s spreading crisis, Gendreau said.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 78.41 points, or 0.7 percent, to 12,097.83.
The gains were broad. All 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 rose. Financials stocks were among the biggest winners. Investors have feared that U.S. banks might be dragged down by their close connections to the unstable European financial system.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. jumped 3.7 percent, the most in the Dow. Bank of America was the second-biggest gainer, rising 2.7 percent. Citigroup Inc. rose 5.9 percent, Morgan Stanley 6.8 percent.
The S&P 500 rose 13, or 1 percent, to 1,257. The Nasdaq rose 29, or 1.1 percent, to 2,656.
Investors are hoping that a summit of European leaders on Thursday and Friday will produce concrete measures to prevent a messy breakup of the euro currency, which is shared by 17 nations. Markets have been jittery because of fears that the euro might disintegrate, causing a sharp recession in Europe that would spread through the world economy.
While the statements from French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were far from a long-term solution, investors are eager to buy on any hint of good news because they have been earning meager returns from relatively low-risk investments such as Treasurys and CDs, Gendreau said no faxing payday loans.
Italian bond yields dropped to their lowest level in a month, a day after the nation’s new government introduced austerity measures. That suggests traders believe that Italy is far less likely to default. The main Italian stock index jumped 2.9 percent.
Italy’s borrowing costs pulled back from a level that might have forced the nation to default. Analysts say bailing out Italy would be too costly and would hurt the credit standing of German and France, which have the strongest economies in the euro group.
The yield on the 10-year Italian bond plunged half a percentage point to 5.93 percent. It rose above 7 percent last month, a level at which other nations were forced to take bailouts. By comparison, bond yields in Germany, Europe’s largest and most stable economy, are roughly 2 percent.
Monday’s strong gains follow the best week in more than two years for U.S. stock indexes. The S&P 500 rose 7.4 percent last week, the most since March 2009. The Dow jumped 7 percent, the most since July 2009.
Markets are hopeful that, given the gravity of the situation afflicting the euro zone, the German and French leaders will come up with a common proposal for tighter integration on budget matters. Analysts say that such a plan could lead to further emergency aid from the European Central Bank, possibly through the International Monetary Fund.
In corporate news:
_ Gannett Co. leapt 10.2 percent after the media company was upgraded to “buy” from “neutral” by analysts at Lazard Capital Markets.
_ Incyte Corp. fell 2 percent after a Citigroup analyst downgraded the drug maker to “neutral” from “buy,” saying its new blood-disease drug Jakafi might not work as a long-term treatment.
_ SuccessFactors Inc. soared more than 50 percent after the company agreed to be sold to German software company SAP for $3.4 billion. SuccessFactors makes software specializing in human resources tasks. The deal is part of SAP’s plan to compete with software rival Oracle Corp.
A funny thing happened here in the past few years. More young adults moved into the St. Louis region than moved out.
Not as many as in some so-called “cooler” cities, and maybe only because fewer people were moving in general from 2008 to 2010 as the nation wrestled with a deep recession and weak recovery.
But in each of those three years, according to new census data crunched by the Brookings Institution, on average, 870 more people age 25 to 34 came to the St. Louis area than left it. That is the opposite of what happened the previous three years and runs counter to the general trend of recent decades. After a long time spent watching young adults move away, and the St. Louis region slowly get grayer, a lot of people say this seems like progress pay day loans.
Wooing young people has been a big focus in recent years for the groups that try to grow St. Louis’ economy. Ranging from efforts by the Regional Chamber and Growth Association to St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, “talent” initiatives and young adult councils have been launched in a bid to stem what some call a “brain drain” and spur fresh thinking in a place that is sometimes seen as stodgy and closed. Grass-roots groups have sprung up with the same ideas.
For an aging region, young adults are a sort of economic vitamin boost. People in their late 20s and early 30s are building careers and choosing where to settle down. Capturing them, and their talent, can mean a stronger workforce, which helps grow and attract companies
The majority owner of the Maple Leafs says it rejected
Guyana has signed a $1 billion agreement with a Canadian-based company for what the government says is the largest private mining investment for the South America country.
Toronto-based Guyana Goldfields Inc. said the Aurora Gold Project agreement signed Friday is the first large-scale gold mining license that Guyana has issued since 1991.
The government said it is expected to create more than 1,900 temporary and permanent jobs and Guyana Goldfields CEO Patrick Sheridan said it is expected to generate $1.6 billion in government revenues at a time of record gold prices.
The company announcement said it will pay a mining royalty of 5 percent when gold sells for $1,000 an ounce and 8 percent when the price is greater. It will also pay a corporate income tax of 30 percent.
The agreement is for 20 years, with provisions for extension.
The company said construction should start early next year and the mine and mill should be operating by early 2014.
Guyana’s government on Friday also announced a $138 million contract with the Beijing-based China Harbor Engineering Co faxless payday loans. to build a new airport terminal and add more than 3,200 feet (1,000 meters) to the main runway at the country’s principal airport, Cheddi Jagan International.
The current 7,400-foot (2,255-meter) runway cannot accommodate fully loaded jumbo jets. A Caribbean Airlines Boeing 737 aircraft that landed late on the runway on July 20 crashed through a fence, breaking in two. No one died.
The two deals come just ahead of Nov. 28 parliamentary elections, and the main opposition coalition complained the airport deal should have been debated by the legislature.
Rupert Roopnarine, the prime ministerial candidate of the Partnership For National Unity, criticized the government for making the deal after Parliament was dissolved for the general election.
The American public has gotten past its animosity toward General Motors for taking a government bailout in 2009, the company’s top executive said Thursday.
Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson said a poll taken last summer for GM by Washington public opinion firm Peter Hart Research Associates shows that more than 70 percent of Americans have a positive opinion of the company. When the same poll was taken in July of 2009, more than 70 percent had a negative opinion, Akerson said.
“I think America loves a competitor. I think General Motors, Chevrolet in particular, is part of Americana,” Akerson said during an appearance at the Detroit Economic Club.
In 2009, GM, saddled with high debt and expensive labor costs, needed $49.5 billion in government loans to survive a trip through bankruptcy court.
The U.S. government got a stake in the restructured company, part of which was sold in an initial public stock offering about one year ago on Nov. 18, 2010. The government’s remaining 500 million shares would have to sell for around $53 per share for the U.S. to break even. Such a sale probably won’t come anytime soon. GM shares are trading around one-third less than the $33 IPO price.
The summer before the IPO, then-GM Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre said government ownership was hurting the company’s sales. Whitacre said GM didn’t want to be known as “Government Motors.”
But Akerson said on Thursday that the new GM is now making money and has passed that stage.
“I do think that we’ve kind of gotten over that,” he said.
GM made a net profit of just over $7.1 billion in the first nine months of the year.
Akerson said the government doesn’t get involved in running GM. But he’s concerned about government pay limits for companies that took bailout money. GM, he said, won’t be able to give bonuses to its 25 highest-paid executives _ even though it could make $8 billion or $9 billion this year.
“We’ve got some very, very good people that could do well at other companies who are doing this one for the home team,” he said.
Akerson pinned the drop in GM’s stock price on the broader economy, not automaker’s performance. Shares of General Motors Co. were down 96 cents, or 4.2 percent, to $21.69 in afternoon trading Thursday. They’re down about 41 percent for the year, slightly worse than the 40 percent drop in shares of Ford Motor Co.
Akerson also said GM will take actions to right its money-losing European operations. He referred to French competitor Peugeot Citroen SA’s plan cut 6,000 jobs because of flat demand in Europe, although he stopped short of saying there would be plant closures or layoffs at GM.
He said the government debt crisis in Europe could have a larger impact on the U.S. than the 2008 financial meltdown and recession, because Europe is “a hugely and important cultural and economic center of gravity for the world.”
Last week GM said its third-quarter net income fell 15 percent from a year earlier to $1.7 billion, partly because of a pretax loss of $292 million in Europe. The loss forced GM to back off an earlier forecast of breaking even in Europe this year.
“Clearly you can’t have a unit as important as Opel is to General Motors chronically unprofitable,” he said. “It’s not sustainable and it’s not good for the company.”
Yemen’s embattled president must speed up reforms and begin a transfer of power according to a plan backed by the international community, said a U.N. envoy on Monday.
Jamal Benomar visited Yemen for a week to promote a Gulf-backed proposal that calls for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to transfer power to his vice president in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
Saleh told a TV interviewer that he will sign, but he did not say when.
Saleh has resisted the proposal despite nearly nine months of protests against his 30-year rule. Several times he said he would sign, only to back away at the last minute. Months of international diplomacy has failed to resolve the crisis.
Benomar held meetings with opposition figures on Monday, including Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who leads a military unit of defectors siding with the opposition and protecting protesters.
Earlier in his trip, Benomar met with Saleh and his deputy.
In a rare interview with foreign media, Saleh told the TV channel France 24 that he would sign the Gulf-backed package, but he would not say when that would happen or what was preventing him from doing so, vaguely noting that there was no time mechanism in the accord online payday loan lenders. The interview was broadcast late Monday.
“Definitely, definitely,” Saleh replied when asked if he intended to leave power. “I believe that anyone who grips on to power is crazy.” He said he would step down 90 days after the agreement goes into effect, but he did not say when that would be.
Mediators and opposition figures have become exasperated with what they see as Saleh’s stalling tactics.
He said that the media was lying when reporting he refused to sign the agreement. He accused armed militias of infiltrating peaceful demonstrations in Yemeni cities.
Pro-Saleh forces regularly engage in deadly clashes with armed tribesmen and military defectors who support the protesters in Yemen’s largest cities, and al-Qaida-linked militants have taken control of entire towns in the country’s restive south.
Security has collapsed across the Arab world’s poorest nation during the nine-month popular uprising.
Kellwood’s chief has indeed been lured away by J.C. Penney.
Michael Kramer, 47, who has been the head of the Town and Country-based apparel company since 2008, will start as chief operating officer of J.C. Penney on December 5. His potential departure had been reported last week.
Kramer said today that the major draw of the new job was Ron Johnson, J.C. Penney’s new chief executive and his former boss at Apple’s retail division, and his vision to revamp the company.
“If this opportunity with Ron wouldn’t have come up, I would still be here moving Kellwood forward,” he said.”If this team can turn J.C. Penney around and restore it back to being America’s favorite store, that will be a story.”
His successor at Kellwood has not yet been determined. But there are a couple of internal candidates being considered for the job, he said.
“I accomplished what I came here to do at Kellwood,” he said, adding that the company is now the most profitable on a percentage basis than it has been in 15 years. Kellwood is a private company and so does not publicly report its results.
Since he arrived at Kellwood, Kramer has helped restructure the company and steered it on a path to acquire a number of designer brands such as Rebecca Taylor, Scotch & Soda, and Adam. Kellwood had previously been known mostly for its moderately-priced brands like Sag Harbor and private-label clothes for outlets like Walmart.
“Mike will help ensure that J.C. Penney is a strong partner to our suppliers, which will be essential to our success as we set out to re-imagine the department store experience,” Johnson said in a statement.
Johnson has also recruited other former Apple colleagues to be part of his team at J.C. Penney. Daniel Walker, a former Apple executive, will be chief talent officer at J.C. Penney. And he has lured Michael Francis, who had been chief marketing officer at Target, to be J.C. Penney’s president.
But even though Kramer is taking the new job, he may stick around St. Louis. His wife and children like it in St. Louis, he said, so he may commute to Texas (where J.C. Penney is based) during the week and come back to St. Louis on the weekends.
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