NEW YORK (AP) ― Some of the world’s largest retailers have agreed to a first-of-its-kind pact to improve safety at some of Bangladesh’s garment factories following a building collapse that killed more than 1,100 workers in the country last month.The move comes just days shy of a deadline imposed by workers’ rights groups that said they would hold street protests and otherwise increase pressure on clothing brands that did not sign the agreement by Wednesday.H&M, a trendy Swedish chain that’s the

Cyprus received its first emergency aid payment and Greece won approval of 7.5 billion euros ($9.7 billion) of rescue loans. Cyprus received 2 billion euros Monday and will get as much as 1 billion euros more in June as the Mediterranean island’s 10 billion-euro aid package was activated, the European Stability Mechanism, the euro area’s permanent backstop fund, said in a statement. The release came as finance ministers from the 17 euro countries wrangled over banking policy and economic remedie

Eurozone finance chiefs urge Slovenia to shore up banks, call on Italy to keep austerity

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) ― Bangladesh’s government plans to raise the minimum wage for garment workers, a Cabinet minister said Sunday, after the deaths of more than 1,100 people in the collapse of a factory building focused international attention on the textile industry’s dismal pay and hazardous working conditions. A new minimum wage board will issue recommendations for pay raises within three months, Textiles Minister Abdul Latif Siddiky said. The Cabinet will then decide whether to accept tho

BRUSSELS (AFP) ― As tens of millions languish on the dole with EU austerity blamed for deepening recession, finance ministers will switch their focus Tuesday from bailout negotiations to the pursuit of a trillion-euro annual tax-fraud bounty.European Union governments are looking to ready a package that will scrap national banking secrecy laws, and are called to overcome holdout opposition from Austria after Luxembourg said it would loosen its policies at a May 22 summit of leaders on the issue.

Chinese online retail giant founder Ma steps down as $294m deal announced

TOKYO (AP) ― International Monetary Fund officials say they are watching carefully for signs that massive flows of cash unleashed in world markets by unprecedented monetary easing might lead to asset bubbles, or to overheating in some emerging markets. “There is a risk of overheating of domestic economies, so we have to pay close attention to this risk,” said IMF Deputy Managing Director Naoyuki Shinohara. “There are some warning signals, but it is not up to the level to ring alarm bells,” he sa

MANOR, Texas (AFP) ― U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday launched yet another effort to pressure Congress to act on his plans to invest in education and innovation to create a new generation of high-paying jobs.Obama flew to Texas to highlight school and industry programs seen as a model method of firming up sluggish growth and taking aim at unemployment, which remains at 7.5 percent more than four years into his presidency.He argued that his policies had cleared away the “rubble” of the wor