London / AFP A British pilots’ union on Monday demanded action after a laser beam dazzled the co-pilot on a New York-bound flight, forcing the Virgin Atlantic jet to turn back shortly following take-off from London’s Heathrow Airport. Police responded to “reports of a laser shone in the direction of a commercial flight that had taken off at Heathrow” on ...

Warsaw / AFP Poland’s controversial bid to convert foreign currency mortgages, mostly in Swiss Francs, into the local zloty currency, could “hurt” the Polish banking sector, a global ratings agency warned on Monday. Moody’s said the move by Poland’s new right-wing government would be “credit negative”, hurting the domestic banking sector’s “ability to lend and absorb future shocks”. “It would ...

Bloomberg China’s increased reliance on non-naval ships to assert its claims in the South China Sea is complicating U.S. efforts to avoid a clash in the disputed waters, according to 7th Fleet commander Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin. While the U.S. and Chinese navies are working more closely under an agreed code for unplanned encounters at sea, the deployment of coast ...