Paris / AFP French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Sunday he would push ahead with a controversial labour reform bill, but promised “improvements” to the proposed text after meetings with union and business leaders. Unveiled in mid-February and greeted with howls of protest from trade unions, the plans would make it easier for companies to lay off workers. “We ...

Athens / AFP Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Sunday said the IMF was employing “stalling tactics” and “arbitrary” estimates to hold up a reforms review crucial to the country’s economic recovery. The leftist PM said the Washington-based global lender was bent on counter-productive cuts that failed to take into account the improved performance of Greece’s economy. “The review will ...

Frankfurt / AFP Despite a raft of different measures by the European Central Bank to kickstart sluggish consumer prices in the eurozone, inflation in the single currency bloc turned negative in February for the first time in five months. The ECB estimates that consumer prices need to rise at an annual rate of close to but just below 2.0 percent ...

Barcelona / AFP In 2009, the Nissan factory in Barcelona in northeastern Spain seemed condemned to close. But it was saved thanks to labour rights sacrifices, becoming a symbol of “flexisecurity” — a cooperative approach to labour relations in which employees accept a degree of flexibility in working arrangements — which is being held up as an example to follow ...

Washington / AfP As Apple’s legal battle with the FBI over encryption heads toward a showdown, there appears little hope for a compromise that would placate both sides and avert a divisive court decision. The FBI is pressing Apple to develop a system that would allow the law enforcement agency to break into a locked iPhone used by one of ...

Mexico / AP Mexico’s central bank has lowered its economic growth forecast for 2016 to between 2 percent and 3 percent. That range was down from 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent in the last quarterly report. The report released covers the final quarter of 2015. The bank now predicts lower external demand due to less dynamic industrial activity in the ...

Sao Paulo / AFP Supporters of Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva rallied in their hundreds outside his Sao Paulo house a day after his dramatic detention in a corruption probe. The show of resolve was the latest sign a mounting political crisis over the investigation into alleged embezzlement and bribery at the state oil giant Petrobras was ...

Bloomberg Frontier Airlines Inc., the no-frills U.S. carrier owned by private-equity firm Indigo Partners, hired underwriters for an initial public offering, people with knowledge of the matter said. Barclays Plc, Deutsche Bank AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are working on the IPO, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. Citigroup Inc. also ...

Bloomberg It’s boom time for Canadian maple-syrup producer Ray Bonenberg, who is expanding sap output from his tree farm near Pembroke, Ontario. About three hours away in the province of Quebec — the Saudi Arabia of syrup — producers like Jim Dempsey can only watch in frustration. Dempsey’s output is capped by the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, a ...

Washington / AFP Senators Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders scored key victories in their White House quests, but it was Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton who outperformed their rivals to remain the race’s undisputed frontrunners. Republican Trump and Democrat Clinton did what they needed to do—dominating in the delegate-rich state of Louisiana in performance that keep them on top at ...