Moody’s Begins Euro-Bank Downgrade Tour With Italy

The Street – Over two dozen Italian banks were downgraded by Moody’s Investors Services Monday as the rating agency kicked off a promised multi-week revision of its assessment of Western-European financials. The downgrades ranged from one to four notches, with banks such as Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara scraping the ratings basement with a D- and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA hitting the top of the range with a C+. UniCredit SpA — one of the country’s largest institutions — had its rating cut to C-. Read Article

ECB stops operations with some Greek banks

Reuters – The European Central Bank has stopped providing liquidity to some Greek banks as they have not been successfully recapitalized, the ECB said on Wednesday, confirming news earlier reported exclusively by Reuters. The news sent the euro lower against the dollar, fanning concerns among investors and in Greece that the country may have to leave the euro zone. Read Article

Greeks Withdraw Nearly $1 Billion From Local Banks

CNBC – Greek depositors withdrew 700 million euros ($900 million) from the nation’s local banks recently, said President Karolos Papoulias, though the exact timing of the transfer was unclear. Citing a conversation he had with Greek Central Bank Governor George Provopoulos, Papoulias said “that the strength of banks is very weak right now.” Stocks declined following the report after being up earlier in the day. Read Article

More Than Half of Police Officers Voted For Neo-nazi Party

GreekReport – More than half of all police officers in Greece voted for pro-Nazi party Golden Dawn in the elections of May 6. This is the disconcerting result of an analysis carried out by authoritative newspaper To Vima in several constituencies in Athens, where 5,000 police officers in service in the Greek capital also cast their ballot. At some polling stations, Golden Dawn obtained 19 to 24% of votes. Read article

France Had Fifth-Wettest April Since 1959, Report Says

Bloomberg – France had its fifth-wettest month of April since 1959, after a dry March, weather forecaster Meteo- France said. Nationally, rain in April was 70 percent above normal, the Saint Mande, France-based forecaster wrote in a monthly report on its website today [May 8]. Read article

Greece to hold new election on 17 June

BBC – Council of State president Panagiotis Pikramenos will head the caretaker government until the election. The election date was announced after party leaders met Greek President Karolos Papoulias on Wednesday. Final talks to form a coalition failed on Tuesday, raising new concerns over Greece’s eurozone future. No party won a majority in the 6 May election. Read article

UK: Record April showers end drought in 19 counties

The Independent – April’s record rainfall has brought much of England out of drought status, the Environment Agency announced today. The heaviest “April showers” since records began in 1910, combined with a similarly sodden beginning to May, have allowed official drought status to be lifted for 19 counties in the South-west, the Midlands and Yorkshire, the agency said. Read article

UK Unemployment falls unexpectedly but worse ‘still to come’

Telegraph – The number of people out of work fell by 45,000 between January and March to 2.63m, official figures show. The unemployment rate fell to 8.2pc over the period, down from 8.3pc the previous quarter and below analysts’ estimates that it would rise by 0.1pc. The number of people in work increased by 105,000 to almost 30m, but this was entirely due to a rise in part-time workers, prompting concerns of “underemployment” in Britain as workers are forced to accept shorter hours when they really want full-time jobs. Read Article

UK Queen’s cousin takes £320k from Berezovksy

PressTV – The cousin of the British Queen, Prince Michael of Kent, has received £320,000 ($514,000) from a Russian ex-politician who fled to London in 2000. Read article

Greek leftists reject proposal for technocrat government

Reuters – Greece’s president will ask politicians on Tuesday to stand aside and let a government of technocrats steer the nation away from bankruptcy, but leftists have already rejected the proposal and look set to force a new election they reckon they can win. Read article

Latvia’s unemployment rate increases to 12.9% in April according to census results

Baltic Course – The registered unemployment rate in Latvia at the end of April 2012 was 12.9% of economically-active residents, which is 1.2 percentage points more than in March, the State Employment Agency informed LETA. The agency explains that the unemployment rate represents the proportion of unemployed residents, registered with the Employment Agency, in the total number of economically active residents. Read Article

Amnesty International raps UK secret courts

PressTV – Amnesty International has expressed concerns over the British government’s plans, introduced in the Queen’s speech this week, to expand secret hearing into civil courts. The proposal submitted by the British government, confirmed in the British Queen’s speech during Wednesday’s state opening of the UK Parliament, allows certain court evidence to be heard from behind closed doors. Read Article

Occupy London

Reuters – Occupy protesters demonstrate outside St. Paul’s Cathedral and scuffle with police in the City of London. Read article

Euro Fall Would Raise Stakes for China, US

Financial Times – The situation in the euro zone has become so bleak that it is giving rise to the most improbable rumours. The latest to make the rounds of European hedge fund managers suggests that the euro will be tied to the dollar at close to parity, a dramatic fall from its current level of just under $1.30 and one that would involve the printing of hundreds of billions of euros. Read Article

‘Indignants’ cleared from Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square

BBC – Police intervened following a clash between protesters, local media say. Police dispersed a similar protest on Sunday. It was part of a weekend in which tens of thousands protested. The square is a focal point for the movement of “indignants”, which erupted in response to economic crisis and austerity policies exactly a year ago. Read article

Thousands march against economic gloom in Spain, UK

Reuters – Thousands of Spaniards fed up with economic misery and waving banners against bankers marched on Saturday to mark the first anniversary of the grassroots “Indignados” movement that has sparked similar protests around the world. Read article

Footage reveals UK police mistreatment

PressTV – UK police mistreatment of people held in their custody has come under spotlight as a new incident captured on CCTV emerges of County Durham police “torture” assault. Two British police staff who twisted and grabbed the arms of a man in order to make him answer their questions after his arrest at Peterlee Police Station in March 2011, have been ordered to pay him £50 each in compensation, with the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) condemning the violent act as “a form of torture”. Read Article

Going Out of Business in Greece: 1,000 Stores Per Week

Greek Reporter – While Greek politicians squabble over who can – or can’t – form a coalition government in the wake of May 6 elections in which anti-austerity rage caused a fractured result, more than 1,000 businesses in Greece are closing up shop each week, victims of a deep recession caused by pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions that have made many Greeks simply stop spending on anything than goods needed for their survival. Read Article

Major UK companies cut secret tax deals in Luxembourg

BBC – Major UK-based firms cut secret tax deals with authorities in Luxembourg to avoid millions in corporation tax in Britain, the BBC’s Panorama has found. The programme obtained confidential tax agreements detailing plans to move profits off-shore to avoid what was a 28% corporate tax rate at the time. Those involved include pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and media company Northern & Shell. Both firms told the programme they have a duty to be tax efficient. Read Article

Lords of the Rings: Olympic paranoia targets protests

Riot police scuffle with demonstrators in Naples

Reuters – Scuffles break out between protesters and police outside a tax office in Naples as public anger grows against tax authorities Read article

Greece bailout crisis: President seeks unity government

BBC – If the president’s bid fails, another election will have to be held. Earlier, Pasok became the third party to fail in coalition talks when leader Evangelos Venizelos formally returned the mandate to the president. Last Sunday, voters backed parties opposed to Greece’s bailout deal, which requires deep budget cuts. Read article

Sonic device deployed in London during Olympics

BBC – The Ministry of Defence has confirmed a sonic device will be deployed in London during the Olympics. The American-made Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) can be used to send verbal warnings over a long distance or emit a beam of pain-inducing tones. The equipment was spotted fixed to a landing craft on the Thames at Westminster this week. Read Article

Eurozone economy to shrink by 0.3%, EU Commission says

BBC – The eurozone economy is forecast to shrink this year as its debt crisis continues to bite. The European Commission’s spring forecast confirmed its prediction of a 0.3% contraction in 2012 in the economies of the 17 countries that use the euro. It predicted growth of 1.0% for the eurozone in 2013. European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn said “a recovery is in sight” for the eurozone. Read Article

FTSE 100 bosses’ pay unrelated to results

BBC – Bosses of the UK’s biggest companies earn millions in “excess remuneration”, a report reveals. Pay packages designed to incentivise FTSE 100 chief executives had little effect on company performance, it found. Reckitt Benckiser, ICAP, and BG Group are among the “worst value FTSE 100 companies”, said Zurich-based financial research firm Obermatt. Read Article