FRANKFURT (AFP) ― Banks’ deposits with the European Central Bank have hit yet another new record, data showed Monday, just days after the ECB pumped more than half a trillion euros into banks to unclog seized credit markets.Banks put 820.8 billion euros ($1.08 trillion) on deposit for 24 hours at the ECB overnight Friday, beating the previous record set the day before of 776.9 billion euros.Rising levels of deposits at the central bank are seen by some as a possible sign of market tensions since

Carmakers forced to face overcapacity issues as austerity and crisis hit salesMILAN (AP) ― As automakers prepare to roll out new models this week at the Geneva Auto Show ― one of the major events in the automotive calendar ― they are being forced to fight for a slice of an ever-shrinking European market stricken with austerity and recession.On top of this, carmakers are also having to confront the uncomfortable fact that a large number of their production lines are lying idle and eating up valua

BERLIN (AFP) -- Greece might need a third international rescue package worth 50 billion euros ($66 billion) in 2015, the German weekly magazine Spiegel said on Sunday.The troika of creditors -- the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund -- is said to have expressed strong doubt in a preliminary report that Greece would be able to return to the international money markets to borrow in 2015.By then Athens is likely to require 50 billion euros to repay intern

Zong Qinghou, China’s second-richest man, called on the government to increase the role of private business in the economy and said the nation’s prospective next president agrees. The 66-year-old self-made billionaire who is chairman of Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co. and a member of China’s legislature, said the nation should cut taxes and allow private investment in more industries. When Vice President Xi Jinping “comes to power,” he will encourage the development of private enterprise, Zong said in

SINGAPORE (AFP) ― Capital-starved airlines worldwide are turning to Asian lenders to fund their ambitious fleet upgrades as the industry’s traditional streams of financing in the West dry up, experts say.In another sign of the world’s shifting economic fortunes, Asian banks, capital markets and leasing firms are stepping in to help airlines cope with rapid growth in travel, according to industry executives and analysts.“In this part of the world there is a lot of financing,” Jim Albaugh, chief e

Carlos Slim, the telecommunications tycoon who controls Mexico’s America Movil SAB, is the richest person on Earth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world’s 20 wealthiest individuals. The 72-year-old’s net worth fell $478.4 million in a day to $68.5 billion as of the close of markets on March 2, as U.S. moguls Bill Gates and Warren Buffett placed second and third on the list compiled by Bloomberg News. Brazil’s Eike Batista, who ranks 10th, still covets the t

WASHINGTON (AP) ― President Barack Obama said Sunday he would not hesitate to attack Iran to keep it from getting a nuclear bomb, hoping a forceful assurance will discourage Israel from launching a unilateral strike that could ignite the Middle East and drag the U.S. into war.Pleading for time for diplomacy to work, Obama warned that “loose talk of war” was only undermining world security.Addressing a powerful pro-Israel lobbying group, Obama delivered messages to multiple audiences: Israel, Ira

BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Congo (AP) ― Homes and buildings collapsed in the Congolese capital after an arms depot exploded Sunday, killing at least 206 people and entombing countless others in crushed structures including inside two churches that buckled while parishioners were celebrating Mass, officials and witnesses said.The shock waves shattered windows in a 5 kilometer radius surrounding the barracks storing the munitions, including across the river that separates Brazzaville, the capital of