Berlin / AFP Germany’s Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere is preparing to unveil a slew of new anti-terror measures, reports said on Wednesday, after two attacks in July claimed by the IS extremist group. The new measures to be announced Thursday include speeding up the expulsion process for asylum seekers convicted of crimes, Bild daily reported, quoting anonymous security ...

  Bloomberg EON SE posted a first-half loss after taking 3.8 billion euros ($4.2 billion) in charges linked to the listing next month of its Uniper unit. Its shares slumped the most in more than six weeks. The impairments and contingency losses for its power stations burning fossil-fuel and natural gas storage assets led to a net loss of 3.03 ...

  London / AFP British workers on the Eurostar cross-Channel rail service will strike for seven days this month, including over a public holiday weekend, in a dispute over hours, a union said on Wednesday. Fifty-five members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union will begin the action this Friday, which the company said would see a maximum of ...

  Prague / AFP European energy heavyweight CEZ said its net profits for the first half of 2016 had fallen by 10 percent against a year ago due to a drop in energy prices. The Czech state-run power group, which ranks among Europe’s top electricity exporters, earned 13.8 billion koruna (511 million euros, $566 million) on sales of 98.9 billion ...

  Paris / AFP French industrial production dropped for a second straight month in June, statistics bureau Insee said Wednesday, alarming analysts who had been looking for a modest increase. Output fell 0.8 percent in June, after dropping 0.5 percent in May, with oil refining posting the largest single decline after strikes in France’s oil industry. Connor Campbell, an analyst ...

  Sydney / AFP Australia’s biggest lender Commonwealth Bank sounded a cautious note about the country’s economic outlook on Wednesday even as it posted a record Aus$9.23 billion (US$7.08 billion) in annual profit. The Commonwealth Bank’s performance is closely watched for guidance on the health of the Australian economy in the current low interest-rate environment. CBA chief executive Ian Narev ...

  Douala / AFP Four employees of a Cameroon bank have been detained on suspicion of stealing millions of euros, sources said. The four staff members of BICEC, a local subsidiary of French bank BPCE, have been placed in detention in the economic capital Douala after they were arrested, a legal source said on condition of anonymity. The group, which ...

  Bloomberg The Central Bank of Nigeria granted lenders permission to write off any fully provided non-performing loans without waiting for the full year required by regulations, as authorities seek ways to boost lending and avert a recession in Africa’s biggest economy. The decision follows a request by banks for an amendment to the rule that requires lenders to retain ...

  Bloomberg Roger Ferguson’s deal to buy EverBank Financial Corp. shows an eagerness to expand TIAA, the company known for offering retirement products to teachers, while he counters for-profit insurance rivals that retreated from heavily regulated deposit-taking operations. TIAA will pay $2.5 billion in cash for the largest Florida-based lender, adding a platform for providing personal and business loans, Ferguson ...

  Europe’s banks have had a rough year: Their stock prices have fallen so low that some observers wonder whether they are viable in their current form. Yet the most commonly proposed solution — a true banking union — is also deeply flawed. The euro area’s banking system faces numerous difficulties. These include economic growth that seems to be permanently ...