Hong Kong / AFP One of China’s most powerful officials said he would listen to political demands from Hongkongers in a conciliatory start to a visit on Tuesday that has stirred anger in a city resentful of Beijing’s tightening grip. The three-day trip by Zhang Dejiang, who chairs China’s communist-controlled legislature, is the first by such a senior official …

  Paris / AFP French President Francois Hollande said on Tuesday the battle against unemployment was not yet won as he vowed to stick with his controversial attempts to reform the labour market. The reforms have sparked two months of street protests and led to an unsuccessful attempt to bring down the government. But Hollande said he placed the need …

  Poland has avoided a credit rating downgrade from Moody’s, and the latest assessment of its economic policies from the International Monetary Fund is rather mild. Although the nationalist government has drawn a lot of adverse attention lately, it might get away with a version of the financial nationalism that Prime Minister Viktor Orban has implemented in Hungary. On Saturday, …