Iberia and British Airways planes
Losses at International Airlines Group have ballooned in the first quarter due to its troubled Spanish carrier Iberia.
The owner of Iberia and British Airways reported a net quarterly loss of 630m euros compared with a net loss of 129m euros last year.
Kofi Annan, former Secretary General at UN
Kofi Annan said tax avoidance, secret mining deals and financial transfers are depriving Africa of the benefits of its resources boom.
Annan stated African countries needed to improve governance and the world’s richest nations should help introduce global rules on transparency and taxation.
Gangnam Style, Youtube most viewed video
The video website YouTube has launched a trial scheme for paid channels on its website.
Under the pilot program, a small number of content makers will offer the channels for subscriptions starting at $0.99 a month.
Spanish Constitutional Court in Madrid
Today, the Spanish Constitutional Court temporarily suspended Catalonia’s Declaration of Sovereignty.
It admitted an appeal from the Spanish government against the text approved by the Catalan parliament.
Roberto Azevedo, Braziliat trade diplomat
Roberto Azevedo, a Brazilian trade diplomat, has been named as the next head of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The Government of Brazil has announced that Azevedo will succeed France’s Pascal Lamy in September.
Catalan meeting for the right to self-determination
All Catalan political parties supporting the right to self-determination decided to incorporate the civil society.
CiU, ERC, PSC, ICV-EUiA and CUP, representing more than 75% of the Catalan parliament, want to ask citizens over independence.
Athens street
According to the International Monetary Fund, debt-laden Greece has made progress in improving its finances, but the country must do more to fight tax evasion.
In a report, the International Monetary Fund said Greece had made exceptional progress on reducing its budget deficit since 2010.
Reserve Bank of India, the central bank of India
India has cut interest rates for the third time this year in an attempt to revive growth in its sluggish economy.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lowered its key rate to 7.25% from 7.5%.
LinkedIn headquarters in Mountain View
Shares of LinkedIn fell more than 10% in after-hours trading in New York, after it issued a weaker-than-expected forecast for the current quarter.
LinkedIn said it expects revenues of between $342 and $347m in the April to June quarter. Most analysts had expected a figure closer to $359m.
Portugal received an international bailout from the EU and IMF
Portugal is planning to cut 30,000 civil service jobs and to raise the retirement age by one year to 66 as it tries to meet the terms of the bailout.
Pedro Passos Coelho, Prime Minister of Portugal, said civil servants would also be required to work 40 hours a week instead of 35.
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