Salon.com > Angela Charlton

Short-selling banned in 4 European countries

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:33:00 +0000

France, Italy, Spain and Belgium are banning short-selling on select stocks amid efforts to calm market turmoil that has sent bank shares gyrating wildly and aggravated worries about Europe's huge debts.

The European Union's markets supervisor, the ESMA, announced the move late Thursday night after boosting surveillance of stormy markets earlier in the day. The move capped two days of whipsaw trading that saw French banks' market value fall and rise by billions of euros.

In a short sale, a trader hopes to make a profit by betting on the decline in the price of a share. The practice has been blamed for contributing to market volatility.

The ESMA said in a statement that the four countries "have today announced or will shortly announce new bans on short-selling or on short positions" as of Friday.

The French market regulator, the AMF, announced late Thursday that it is banning for 15 days net short-selling on 11 stocks, including those of banks Societe Generale, BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole and leading insurers.

Belgium's market authority said it would ban short-selling on financial shares such as leading banks and insurers as of Friday. Belgium had already banned naked short selling, basically a bet on a decline in the price of a share without borrowing the share, since August 2008.

Sarkozy lashes at U.S., defends Libya campaign

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:16:56 +0000

French President Nicolas Sarkozy derided the low U.S. profile in the international campaign in Libya, saying Friday that France and Britain are carrying most of the burden and will stay until Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi leaves.

While other European leaders pushed Friday for some kind of political solution in Libya, the French leader strongly defended the NATO-led military operation -- and NATO itself. He refuted comments by U.S. Defense Minister Robert Gates that the alliance's future could be in doubt because of European reluctance to exercise military might.

"I wouldn't say that the bulk of the work in Libya is being done by our American friends," Sarkozy told reporters in Brussels at a European Union summit. "The French and English and their allies are doing the work."

The United States has insisted on a backseat role in Libya. It led the initial coalition airstrikes in March, but in April withdrew U.S. forces from the direct combat role, limiting them to battlefield surveillance, aerial tanking and other support roles.

Seven NATO members are now participating in air strikes: Britain, France, Belgium, Canada, Norway, Denmark and Italy. But, as Gates said, most of NATO's 28 members, including Germany, have refused to join the strike mission in Libya.

Russia offers to mediate Gadhafi’s exit

Fri, 27 May 2011 16:15:18 +0000

Russia offered Friday to mediate the exit of Libya's longtime leader, cranking up pressure on Moammar Gadhafi as France and Britain seek to intensify their bombing campaign.

"He should leave," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said of Gadhafi.

Frustration is mounting in Moscow and Western capitals that the NATO campaign has dragged into its third month with no obvious end in sight. Analysts are skeptical as to whether Russia would have any leverage over Gadhafi, and the leaders of France, Britain and Germany said there's no point in negotiating directly with Gadhafi himself.

Medvedev, speaking at a news conference at the Group of Eight summit in Deauville, France, said he is sending envoy Mikhail Margelov to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, Libya, immediately to start negotiating. Medvedev said talks with the Libyan government could take place later.

Medvedev said Russia will use its contacts with both Gadhafi's government and the rebels to try to negotiate a peaceful end to the conflict.

Russian officials have been critical of Gadhafi but also complain about what they called an excessive use of force by NATO and have urged a quick end to hostilities. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently held talks in Moscow with representatives of both Gadhafi's government and the rebels.

Frenchwoman alleges 2002 assault by Strauss-Kahn

Mon, 16 May 2011 12:34:18 +0000

The lawyer for a woman who says she was sexually assaulted by Dominique Strauss-Kahn nine years ago says she wants to file a legal complaint against the International Monetary Fund chief.

Lawyer David Koubbi says Tristane Banon did not file suit earlier due to "pressures" she face over the alleged 2002 sexual assault by Strauss-Kahn and was dissuaded by her own mother, a regional Socialist official.

The IMF chief -- a possible Socialist contender in France's 2012 presidential race -- is in custody in New York after being accused of a weekend sexual assault against a hotel maid.

Koubbi told RTL radio Monday he is likely to file suit for Banon now because "she knows she'll be heard and she knows she'll be taken seriously."

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The head of the International Monetary Fund was examined for evidence that could incriminate him in the alleged sexual assault of a hotel maid, charges that stunned the global financial world and upended French presidential politics.

Europe, not US, pushed for military force in Libya

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:30:00 +0000

America unleashed the heavier firepower, but Europe -- to the surprise of some -- was the driving force behind the assault on Libya's Moammar Gadhafi.

France, perhaps hoping to purge memories of a dictator-coddling past, fired the first strikes Saturday. Britain, still stinging from its release of the Libyan agent behind the Lockerbie plane bombing, cajoled other nations into joining.

And all 27 countries in the European Union insisted nine days ago that Gadhafi "must relinquish power immediately" -- unexpected, from a bloc often accused of being too slow and too soft. President Barack Obama, initially reticent, joined in the call and seemed happy to let Europe take the lead publicly.

The contrast with 2003 -- when France led global opposition to the war on Iraq -- shows how much has changed since then, and also how different things can be when the problem is on Europe's doorstep.

Europeans fear a flood of refugees, making them particularly sensitive to the possibility of a humanitarian disaster in North Africa.

Japan’s blasts cast doubt on nuclear renaissance

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 20:44:00 +0000

Switzerland freezes plans to build new nuclear plants, Germany raises questions about its nuclear future, and opposition to atomic reactor construction mounts from Turkey to South Africa.

Will explosions at a tsunami-stricken Japanese nuclear plant halt what has come to be known as the nuclear renaissance?

Fears about nuclear safety that took a generation to overcome after the accidents at Chernobyl and Three-Mile Island are resurfacing around the globe. They are casting new doubt on a controversial energy source that has seen a resurgence in recent years, amid worries over volatile oil prices and global warming.

"Europe has to wake up from its Sleeping Beauty slumber" about nuclear safety, Austria's Environment Minister Nikolaus Berlakovich told reporters in Brussels. He suggested an EU-wide stress test for nuclear plants, much like European banks have been tested for their ability to cope with financial shocks.

Yet some experts and officials say those fears are overblown, given the exceptional nature of Japan's earthquake and ensuing tsunami. The Japanese blasts may slow the push for more nuclear plants, but appear unlikely to stop it, given the world's fast-growing energy needs.

Dior suspends designer Galliano after cafe spat

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:17:00 +0000

Famed fashion house Christian Dior SA suspended creative director John Galliano on Friday after he was detained and accused of an anti-Semitic insult, in a bombshell development days before Paris catwalks heat up for fashion week.

Dior said in a statement it suspended Galliano pending an investigation into an incident in a Paris restaurant Thursday night.

Paris prosecutors said a couple in the restaurant accused Galliano of making anti-Semitic insults. A police official said Galliano also exchanged slaps with the couple.

The British designer was questioned and released after the incident. Both officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, say Galliano's blood alcohol levels were high.

"The House of Dior confirms, with the greatest firmness, its policy of zero tolerance for any anti-Semitic or racist comments," Sidney Toledano, CEO of Dior Couture, said in the statement.

Galliano's suspension is a big blow at a bad moment for one of world fashion's most storied companies. Dior would not comment on whether it would present its collection as planned at the fall-winter 2011-2012 ready-to-wear shows that start up in Paris next week.

Picasso, Matisse among paintings stolen in heist

Thu, 20 May 2010 11:57:00 +0000

A lone thief stole five paintings worth up to half a billion euros ($613 million) total, including major works by Picasso and Matisse, in a brazen overnight heist Thursday from a Paris modern art museum, police and prosecutors said.

The paintings were reported missing early Thursday from the Paris Museum of Modern Art, across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower, according to Paris police. Investigators have cordoned off the museum, in one of the French capital's most tourist-frequented neighborhoods.

A single masked intruder was caught on a video surveillance camera taking the paintings away, according to the Paris prosecutor's office. The intruder entered by cutting a padlock on a gate and breaking a museum window, it said.

Their collective worth is estimated at as much as euro500 million ($613 million), the prosecutor's office said.

The stolen works were "Le pigeon aux petits-pois" (The Pigeon with the Peas) an ochre and brown Cubist oil painting by Pablo Picasso; "La Pastorale" (Pastoral), an oil painting of nudes on hillside by Henri Matisse; "L'olivier pres de l'Estaque" (Olive Tree near Estaque) by Georges Braque; "La femme a l'eventail" (Woman with a Fan) by Amedeo Modigliani; and "Nature-mort aux chandeliers" (Still Life with Chandeliers) by Fernand Leger.

Sarkozy urges new world finance rules in U.S. speech

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:53:32 +0000

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in an upfront speech in New York, urged the United States to lead the way in imposing new global financial regulations -- and to pay more attention to the rest of the world.

Sarkozy stood firm against terrorism, pledging to keep up the fight in Afghanistan and rallying behind Russia after deadly subway attacks.

But his main message was spurring the United States -- and President Barack Obama, who will host the French leader at the White House on Tuesday -- to prevent future economic crises.

"You should reflect on what it means to be the world's No. 1 power," he said, during his speech at Columbia University, repeatedly pointing his finger at the hundreds of students and faculty gathered for his speech.

His wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, nodded supportively in the front row, after the two climbed the steps of the elite university's library hand-in-hand.

"The world does not stop at the East Coast, the world does not stop at the West Coast," Sarkozy said. "The world needs an open America, a generous America, an America that shows the way, an America that listens."

French left beats Sarkozy’s party in regional vote

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:12:00 +0000

The long-flailing French left made a big-time comeback Sunday, crushing Nicolas Sarkozy's conservatives in regional elections colored by voters' economic worries -- and informally kicking off the 2012 presidential race.

Cheers resounded from Socialist Party headquarters as leftists swept races from the French Riviera to Paris. With 97 percent of ballots counted, the Socialists and their allies won 54 percent of the vote nationwide, while Sarkozy's UMP party had 35.3 percent, according to the Interior Ministry.

The results show what a rough road the dynamic but increasingly isolated Sarkozy has ahead of him between now and 2012. Nationwide strikes are planned Tuesday by some of those who punished his party Sunday: train drivers angry over pension reforms that are a pillar of his presidential policy, and teachers angry over job cuts. Meanwhile, he faces new challenges from a popular green movement and a reinvigorated extreme right.

Sunday's vote came close to the "grand slam" sweep of all 26 regions that the Socialists were hoping for. Official results showed the conservatives holding on to Alsace but losing control of Corsica. Those were the only two regions run by the right going into the vote, and two closely watched races.