Category Archives: Business News
Written on
May 13, 2013 | by
Ashley Johnson
Royal Bank of Scotland is to cut a further 1,400 jobs over the next two years. Most of the job losses are expected to be at RBS’s offices in Edinburgh as the 81 per cent taxpayer-owned bank said that it would not be cutting frontline staff in branches.
Since RBS came to the brink of collapse during the financial crisis it has cut nearly 40,000 jobs, many in its investment banking division.
Ross McEwan, the chief executive of RBS’s UK retail operations, said: “To serve our customers well, we have to ensure that our resources are focused on the things that matter most to them. Regrettably, we can only do that by restructuring the way we work in head office, so that every effort is concentrated on supporting our customers and the frontline staff that serve them.”
He said that where possible staff would be redeployed and he hoped to avoid compulsory redundancies.
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Tags: Jobs, Jobs Plans
Written on
May 01, 2013 | by
Ashley Johnson
HONOLULU (AP) — A group of Hawaii fishermen is asking the federal government to remove northern Pacific humpback whales from the endangered species list, saying the population has steadily grown since the international community banned commercial whaling nearly 50 years ago.
Hawaii Fishermen’s Alliance for Conservation and Tradition Inc., a coalition of fishing clubs and groups from across the islands, filed a petition to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last month.
There are more than 21,000 humpback whales in the North Pacific today, compared with about 1,400 in the mid-1960s.
More than half spend the winter breeding and calving in Hawaii’s warm waters. The animals, known for acrobatic leaps and complex singing patterns, have become a major draw for tourists and support a thriving whale-watching industry in Hawaii. O
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Tags: Humpback Whales, List
Written on
Apr 12, 2013 | by
Ashley Johnson
Greece cleared an important hurdle in its drive to receive its next batch of bailout loans from its international creditors Monday. But even though the deal was secured without the global market tensions that have marked earlier rescue talks, the economic reforms agreed involve firing thousands of civil service workers.
The review by delegates from the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank — known collectively as the troika — is part of a regular process under which Greece receives installments of its multibillion-euro bailout.
Greece has been dependent on some 270 billion euros in bailout loans and other rescue packages since 2010, the lion’s share of which comes from Greece’s partners in the eurozone — the 17 European Union countries that use the euro.
In return, successive Greek governments have pledged to overhaul the Greek economy and imposed stringent spending cuts and tax hikes. The r
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Tags: Deal, Deal Debt
Written on
Apr 08, 2013 | by
Ashley Johnson
China’s inflation tumbled to 2.1 per cent last month as food price growth slowed, taking pressure off consumers but raising questions about the strength of recovery in the world’s second biggest economy.
The consumer price index 2.1 per cent increase in March was well below the 3.5 per cent target for the year and marks a significant decline on the 3.2 per cent jump recorded in February, when spending for the Lunar New Year holiday pushed prices up – taking inflation for the month to a 10-month high.
Analysts said that the declining inflation figures would leave Chinese policymakers scope to keep interest rates low. “Lower inflation will greatly ease investors’ concerns that the policymakers would begin to tighten monetary conditions,” said JPMorgan chief economist for China Haibin Zhu.
IHS Global Insight analyst Alistair Thornton added: “We have yet to see a surge in final demand ripple throughout the economy. This is not
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Tags: Recovery, Recovery Doubts
Written on
Apr 01, 2013 | by
Ashley Johnson
SEATTLE (AP) — Boeing is conducting another test flight of its 787 passenger jet over the West Coast.
The company said Monday’s flight is designed to test system upgrades and not to certify changes in the plane’s batteries.
Airlines have 50 of the planes, which Boeing calls the Dreamliner. But they’re still grounded after two of them overheated. Boeing is trying to assure regulators that after some design changes, the batteries are safe. Boeing expects to make at least one battery-test flight.
After Monday’s 2-hour flight from the Seattle area to Moses Lake, Wash., Boeing plans to fly the test plane back to Seattle.
Tags: Jet, Test Flight