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☆ Annecy gathers in support of knife attack victims
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

PARIS, June 11 (Reuters) - Citizens of the southeastern French town of Annecy gathered on Sunday in support of victims of the knife attack which gravely wounded four toddlers and two pensioners on Thursday. Annecy Mayor Francois Astorg told the crowd the attack was "a tragedy touching our city, the country and the whole world. The suspect, a Syrian refugee, is under formal investigation for attempted murder and was placed in detention on Saturday. The injured are no longer in critical condition, Annecy Prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis told a news conference on Saturday, though the four children remained in hospital. The stabbing was the first violent attack targeting children since 2012, when gunman Mohamed Merah shot three Jewish children and one of their parents, and then three soldiers, in Toulouse.

Persons: Annecy Mayor Francois Astorg, Astorg, Mathis, Mohamed Merah, Dominique Vidalon, David Holmes Organizations: Annecy Mayor, Annecy Prosecutor, Thomson Locations: French, Annecy, Syrian, Toulouse

REUTERS/Denis BalibousePARIS, June 10 (Reuters) - The suspect in a knife attack in which four toddlers and two pensioners were wounded in the southeastern French town of Annecy on Thursday has been placed in detention, the local prosecutor said on Saturday. The suspect, a Syrian refugee born in 1991, is under formal investigation for attempted murder and resisting arrest with a weapon, the prosecutor said. The injured are no longer in critical condition, Annecy Prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis told a news conference, adding that the four children were still in hospital. The suspect has chosen not to speak while in police custody and when presented before judges, the prosecutor said. Witnesses told investigators that they heard the suspect call out for "his wife, his daughter" and shouted "Jesus Christ", the prosecutor added.

Persons: Denis Balibouse PARIS, Mathis, Mohamed Merah, Bonnet, Christ, Dominique Vidalon, Cecile Mantovani, Hugh Lawson, Louise Heavens Organizations: REUTERS, Annecy Prosecutor, Thomson Locations: Annecy, French, France, Syrian, Toulouse, Savoie, Sweden, Turkey, Italy, Switzerland, Swedish

Two of the children were in a critical but stable condition in hospital a day after the attack, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said. Among the children wounded in the attack where a British national and a Dutch national. France hailed the bravery of a young Catholic pilgrim who came face-to-face with the assailant and used his backpack as a shield as he sought to block the attack. A mass will be held in Annecy Cathedral in tribute to the victims and their families later on Friday, church authorities said. One of the two pensioners caught up in the attack told Reuters he had been sitting on a park bench when the attacker approached on the run.

Persons: Denis Balibouse, Elisabeth Borne, Emmanuel Macron, lunge, Henri, Mag Capone, Borne, Youssouf, Antony Paone, Geert de Clercq, Richard Lough, Andrew Heavens Organizations: REUTERS, Denis Balibouse Annecy, British, Reuters, Annecy Cathedral, Police, Thomson Locations: Annecy, French, France, Grenoble, Sweden, Swedish, Schengen, Italy, Paris

ANNECY, France, June 9 (Reuters) - Two toddlers gravely wounded by a knifeman in the French mountain town of Annecy were in a stable condition on Friday and doctors are optimistic for their recovery, President Emmanuel Macron said. Macron, who has called the attack an "act of absolute cowardice", visited the hospital in Grenoble where three of the four children are being treated before heading to nearby Annecy. "The doctors are very confident," Macron told the police and paramedics who responded to the aftermath of the attack. Among the children wounded in the attack were a British national and a Dutch national. One of the two pensioners caught up in the attack told Reuters he had been sitting on a park bench when the attacker approached on the run.

Persons: Emmanuel Macron, Macron, lunge, Henri, Denis Balibouse, Mag Capone, Mathis, Elisabeth Borne, Gerald Darmanin, Youssouf, Antony Paone, Geert de Clercq, Richard Lough, Andrew Heavens, Nick Macfie, Angus MacSwan Organizations: Reuters, REUTERS, Annecy Cathedral, Annecy Prosecutor, Police, Thomson Locations: ANNECY, France, Annecy, Grenoble, British, French, Sweden, Swedish, Schengen, Italy, Paris

☆ Factbox: France stabbing: what we know so far about the Annecy attack on toddlers
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

PARIS, June 8 (Reuters) - Here is what we know so far about a knife attack against toddlers in the southeastern French town of Annecy on Thursday, in which some of them were seriously wounded. In a park in Annecy, a tranquil town at the foot of the French Alps that is popular for winter sports as well as for summer pursuits like hiking and parasailing. The suspected attacker is a Syrian national who was carrying Syrian and Swedish identity papers, including a Swedish drivers' license, according to French authorities. French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said the 31-year-old was granted refugee status in Sweden 10 years ago and was in France legally. A subsequent asylum request in France had been refused on the grounds Sweden had already approved one, she said.

Persons: Elisabeth Borne, Geert De Clercq, Richard Lough, Frances Kerry Organizations: Lake Annecy, French, Reuters, Thomson Locations: French, Annecy, Lake, British, Syrian, Swedish, Sweden, France

☆ Explainer: What happens if Washington falls behind on its bills?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Jason Lange | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The day's $26 billion in tax revenues would not be enough to cover about $101 billion in spending obligations promised by Congress. Pensioners and other Social Security beneficiaries wouldn't get $25 billion owed them. JUNE 6Weapons manufacturers and other companies supplying the U.S. military wouldn't collect $2 billion owed them. But more bills would keep coming due, and Americans expecting tax refund deposits on June 7 wouldn't get about $1 billion owed them. But revenues wouldn't cover all the other bills due June 15, such as military salaries.

Buenos Aires wants faster payouts and easier economic targets. "More than a debt, it's a crime," President Fernandez wrote in a tweet on Thursday, citing a new government auditor report that concluded the original deal had lacked the required impact study and not passed through proper legislative channels. Fernandez, who has criticized the original deal before, called for an investigation "with all the weight of the law." Powerful but divisive Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, a previous two-term president, called the original deal "scandalous" and a "scam" of the Argentine people. Macri and the IMF have defended the original deal as necessary to restore Argentina's economic stability.

Ahead of an election on May 21, a cost-of-living crisis that is eroding earnings is foremost in voters' minds. For Klaoudatou it means voting for anyone but the incumbent conservative New Democracy or the opposition leftist Syriza. Reuters GraphicsThree international bailouts saved Greece from toppling out of the euro zone during a decade-long debt crisis that peaked in 2015. "Εven during the crisis - and this is the joke - I didn't think so much before spending a single extra euro," Klaoudatou told Reuters. Reuters GraphicsPAYCHECK BARELY GETS TO PAYCHECKOne in two Greek households could barely get by on their monthly income last year.

MUMBAI, May 9 (Reuters) - India's national pension scheme offers "exceedingly good" returns of 9-12%, compared to most benchmarks, a top official at the pension fund regulator said on Tuesday. The National Pension Scheme, adopted in 2004, has recently come under criticism for inadequate returns, leading to a few state governments reverting to an earlier pension plan considered fiscally unviable. States that have decided to move back to a so-called old pension scheme include Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. The old pension scheme offered assured returns to pensioners without any contribution from the employees, which made it fiscally unsustainable for the government. Economists warned that the return to a scheme with assured returns could hurt India's attempts to improve government finances and reduce debt.

☆ Australian government pledges $10 billion in budget to ease cost of living
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Lamp posts in front of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) building in Sydney, Australia, on Monday, Feb. 6, 2023. Australia's center-left Labor government said on Monday it would include 14.6 billion Australian dollars ($9.84 billion) over four years in the federal budget for cost of living relief for families and businesses, which it promised would not stoke inflation. "The centerpiece of the budget ... will be cost-of-living relief that doesn't add to inflation," Treasurer Jim Chalmers said in a statement, ahead of Tuesday's federal budget. We've carefully calibrated and designed this Budget so that it takes pressure off the cost-of-living rather than add to it." The government is set to unveil in the budget financial assistance for more than 5 million low-income families, small businesses and pensioners struggling with high power bills.

☆ Australia pledges $10 billion in budget to ease cost of living
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SYDNEY, May 8 (Reuters) - Australia's centre-left Labor government said on Monday it would include A$14.6 billion ($9.84 billion) over four years in the federal budget for cost of living relief for families and businesses, which it promised would not stoke inflation. The plan is designed to directly ease price pressures and inflation, the federal government said, which has eased in the first quarter but still sits near 30-year highs of 7.0%. "The centrepiece of the budget ... will be cost-of-living relief that doesn't add to inflation," Treasurer Jim Chalmers said in a statement, ahead of Tuesday's federal budget. We've carefully calibrated and designed this Budget so that it takes pressure off the cost-of-living rather than add to it." ($1 = 1.4830 Australian dollars)Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Sam HolmesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The market swoon from what would be an unprecedented U.S. default would bludgeon away billions more in wealth. The cost to insure U.S. government debt against default has shot to the highest since the 2007-2009 financial crisis. All of that takes air out the economy's tires and could start to push up the unemployment rate, now at a historically low 3.5%. Some top economic policymakers like those at the Fed had predicted as early as last December that the unemployment rate would be roughly 1 percentage point higher by the end of 2023. A debt crisis and a default, even if only on some of the interest payments due each day, would move it forward, Bostjancic said.

☆ Iran resorts to security cameras, ostracism to deter unveiled women
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Parisa Hafezi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

For decades women who refused to wear the hijab were accosted by morality police operating from vans that patrolled busy public spaces. NOVEL TACTICSIn place of the vans, authorities are installing cameras on streets to identify unveiled women, providing a more discreet method of detecting breaches of Iran's conservative dress code. Now women show up frequently unveiled in malls, airports, restaurants and streets in a display of civil disobedience. Several lawmakers and politicians have warned that the protests could resume if authorities continue to focus on penalising women who discard the hijab. "My grocery shop was closed down for a few days by authorities for serving unveiled women," said Asghar, 45, in the central city of Isfahan.

☆ Russians trying to help the Kremlin are being scammed into throwing Molotov cocktails at its offices and cars instead: reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

They were told by scammers to chuck Molotov cocktails, but most were unsuccessful, per local media. The people involved have tried to set fire to enlistment offices, bank ATMs, a car trunk, and a police department, though most have been unsuccessful, the outlet reported. Olga told authorities an unknown man had been calling her for a month, saying he was a bank employee. He'd taught Olga how to create the Molotov cocktails and instructed her to start a fire in the government building, according to Shot. We're standing on the street where they stopped me," Olga told the man on the phone.

☆ Costa Rica president gets tougher on security as crime soars
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SAN JOSE, April 19 (Reuters) - Costa Rica's president on Wednesday presented a set of security measures in response to surging crime rates in the Central American country, which is currently on track this year to beat 2022's record murder rate. Costa Rica ended 2022 with a record 12.6 homicides per 100,000 residents, according to the judicial research agency OIJ. "We are going to mend the course we lost a long time ago," said Chaves, a week after criticizing those who condemned the security crisis. The country's main business chamber on Friday called for a state of "national emergency," fearing a hit to foreign investment and tourism. Reporting by Alvaro Murillo; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Isabel Woodford and Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Explainer: Macron pension reform ends cherished French exception
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Leigh Thomas | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

CAN THE FRENCH RETIRE EARLIER THAN OTHERS IN EUROPE? French pension payments as a share of pre-retirement earnings are comfortably higher than elsewhere. That is nearly double the OECD average of 7.7%, with only Italy and Greece spending more than France. In France the average effective age people leave the labour market is 60.4, well below the OECD average of 63.8. Macron's government says that raising the retirement age will plug a 13.5 billion euro shortfall the pension system would otherwise be running by 2030.

☆ Italy can cut massive public debt with migrant inflows, Treasury data shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Giuseppe Fonte | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The Treasury estimates that a 33% increase in registered migrants in Italy would lead to a fall in public debt in 2070 by "over 30" percentage points more compared to a no-migrants-growth scenario. "Given the demographic structure of migrants entering Italy, the effect on the resident population of working age is significant," the Treasury said. The DEF also said migrant inflows can offset the negative impact on public debt of a shrinking population. Births in Italy dropped to a new historic low below 400,000 in 2022, national statistics bureau ISTAT said last week. Italy's public debt is targeted in the DEF to fall to 140.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2026 from 142.1% this year.

☆ Cash-strapped Chinese cities are cutting medical benefits for seniors
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Censors removed hashtags for “Wuhan health insurance” from Weibo’s hot topics section after the demonstrations began in January. State media reported at the time that some other regions had already spent public money on mass testing. CFOTO/Future Publishing/Getty ImagesCovering the shortfallChina’s health insurance scheme is a key part of its limited social safety net. To protesters, however, it looked like local governments were dipping into their individual accounts to cover the shortfalls of the collective pool. “There has to be some resolution of the financial capacity of local governments to meet current, and prospective, age-related costs,” Magnus said.

☆ Elderly Swiss women bring European court's first climate case
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Emma Farge | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

STRASBOURG, March 29 (Reuters) - Thousands of elderly Swiss women have joined forces in a groundbreaking case heard on Wednesday at the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that their government's "woefully inadequate" efforts to fight global warming violate their human rights. More than 100 supporters and climate activists from Greenpeace gathered outside the courtroom, holding banners and flowers. Stefanie Brander, a member of the association Senior Women for Climate Protection, said that she felt the government had underestimated the group until now. [1/8] A group from the Senior Women for Climate Protection association hold banners outside the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France March 29, 2023. The Swiss government, which twice won in domestic courts in a six-year legal battle, has argued that the case is inadmissible.

☆ Bank of England tells regulators to move fast on LDI reform after mini-budget crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) - The Bank of England on Wednesday told regulators to move fast to toughen rules for funds used by Britain's pension industry which nearly collapsed last year after former Prime Minister Liz's Truss's "mini-budget." But the BoE's Financial Policy Committee called on pension regulators to act "as soon as possible" to mitigate the risks posed by liability-driven investment (LDI) funds. The FPC also said there is a need to toughen resilience of money market funds, used by companies for day-to-day financing, and UK regulators will publish a consultation paper on MMF regulation later this year. The FPC stressed that "all UK banks" have been assessed on their resilience to moves in interest rate rises, including the impact on their holdings of net open bond positions. (Reporting by Huw Jones and William Schomberg)((uk.economics@reuters.com; +44 20 7542 5109))Keywords: BRITAIN BOE/Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ How facial recognition is helping Putin curb dissent
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

There officers told the 51-year-old bank employee that the metro’s facial recognition system had flagged him for detention because of his political activism. Facial recognition is now helping police to identify and sweep up the Kremlin’s opponents as a preventive measure, whenever they choose. The facial recognition system in Moscow is powered by algorithms produced by one Belarusian company and three Russian firms. All but one said they understood from officers that they were flagged for detention by facial recognition. Facial recognition technology uses artificial intelligence algorithms to analyse and identify faces.

☆ 'Climate lockdown' anger drives Swiss grandmother to sue Bern at EU court
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Emma Farge | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Her frustration with what she calls "climate lockdown" is part of her motivation for suing the Swiss government alongside more than 2,000 other elderly women in the first ever climate case before the European Court of Human Rights this week. Some of the other women in the case described shortness of breath, nausea and even loss of consciousness during heatwaves which are becoming more frequent due to climate change. More broadly, Switzerland said it recognises that climate change is a problem for the country where temperatures are rising about twice the global rate. Observers acknowledge that it may be difficult to prove the women's suffering is the result of climate change, rather than something else. But due to the advanced age of the Swiss women (73 on average), several dozen of them have already died.

☆ In pictures: Protests take place across France after Macron forces through pension changes
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Jenni Reid | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A man in Lille, northern France, stands next to a placard reading "No!" Strikes and protests around France on Thursday disrupted travel and filled the streets as citizens demonstrated against changes to the pension system. His bill will see the retirement age for most workers rise from 62 to 64 and the number of years a worker must pay into the system to receive a full pension rise from 42 to 43 in 2027. On Thursday, unions accused Macron of making "provocative" comments after he said they had failed to engage in negotiations over changes to the pension system and compared the protests to the raiding of the U.S. Capitol in 2021. Meanwhile, electricity output was cut, refinery blockages continued and the civil aviation authority said flight services would be reduced into the weekend.

Protests against the bill have drawn huge crowds in rallies organised by unions since January. Most have been peaceful, but anger has mounted since the government pushed the bill through parliament without a vote last week. The ongoing protests could impact a planned state visit next week of Britain's King Charles, a Buckingham Palace source said. While the opposition has called for Macron to fire his prime minister, Elisabeth Borne, who has been at the forefront of the pension reform, Macron backed her and said that he had tasked her to work on new reforms. "Tomorrow we will be on the streets again to demonstrate against the pension reform and demand its withdrawal," said one of them, CFDT union member Sophie Trastour.

☆ RBC names 5 global financial stocks to buy right now as banks sell off
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Ganesh Rao | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The recent falls in the stock of European financial stocks have presented a buying opportunity, according to RBC Capital Markets. However, RBC analysts say insurers are fundamentally different from banks, and the circumstances that led to SVB's collapse could not occur at an insurance company. Shares of Just Group in particular are expected to double over the next 12 months to £1.60 ($1.96) from its current share price of £0.79, according to RBC. "While bank customers can choose to withdraw their deposits there is no ability for an annuitant to withdraw." While the insurance firms only hold high-quality investments, as required by law, RBC analysts concede that there is a small risk if the underlying assets fail or if people live longer than anticipated.

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