BERLIN (AFP) ― France and Germany on Tuesday agreed to hammer out joint proposals for strengthening the crisis-battered eurozone as they marked 50 years since a treaty sealing their post-war reconciliation.Setting past tensions aside, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande put on a show of unity, even dropping past formalities and trumpeting their personal “chemistry.”At a joint news conference in the middle of a hectic agenda of pomp and ceremony marking the 1963

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, who worked to get trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama through Congress, is leaving the Obama administration next month.Kirk, a former mayor of Dallas, announced his departure in a brief statement Tuesday. He had served as the administration's top trade negotiator through President Barack Obama's first term in office.Kirk also led the administration's effort to bring cases before the World Trade Organization that accused China of unfair trade

Yen futures trading in South Korea has spiked so far this year as more investors make bets on the further descent of the Japanese currency, data showed Tuesday. The daily turnover of yen futures has reached an average of 104.9 billion won ($98.7 million) in the Seoul market as of last Friday since the beginning of this year, up 84.9 percent from the average 56.7 billion won tallied over the same period in 2012, according to the data by the Korea Exchange (KRX). A foreign exchange futures contrac

The yen strengthened from its weakest level against the dollar since June 2010 as Bank of Japan officials started a two-day policy meeting. Japan’s currency has declined 5.9 percent versus the greenback in the past month on speculation the BOJ, under pressure from the government of new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, will boost stimulus to lift the economy out of recession. Technical indicators signaled the yen’s drop may have been overdone and data showed traders became the least bearish on the curr

The U.K.’s financial industry will lose 43,000 jobs in six months, according to a forecast from the Confederation of British Industry, as companies shrink and reduce costs. Banks, insurers, asset managers and other finance firms probably cut 25,000 positions in the last three months of 2012 and may eliminate 18,000 jobs in the first quarter of this year, according to a study by Britain’s biggest business lobby group and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, published Sunday. Global cuts at financial firms