Employees of “Auto Chassis International” owned by French automaker Renault, attend a rally to protest against job cuts in Le Mans, western France on January 23, 2013. Renault has officially warned unions that car factories will close unless they seal an agreement of salary cuts and thousands of layoffs in the floundering company. “If there is no deal, it is impossible to leave things... 

An Australian company claims it has found an untapped shale oil field with estimated reserves that could potentially put the country next to remarkably oil-rich Saudi Arabia. Still, extracting the discovered treasure poses a huge technical challenge. ­Brisbane-based company Linc Energy has presented two estimates by respected independent consultants claiming that drilling and seismic exploration... 

In 2012, full-time union members had a median weekly salary of USD 943, with their non-union counterparts earning only USD 742. A new report shows that American labor unions have experienced their worst decline in membership in nearly 80 years, mainly due to losses of public sector workers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Wednesday that the union membership rate fell from 11.8 to 11.3 percent... 

The world’s 100 richest people earned a stunning total of $240 billion in 2012 – enough money to end extreme poverty worldwide four times over, Oxfam has revealed, adding that the global economic crisis is further enriching the super-rich. “The richest 1 percent has increased its income by 60 percent in the last 20 years with the financial crisis accelerating rather than slowing the process,”... 

On January 20th, 2009, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. The inauguration ceremony of U.S. President Barack Obama will cost millions of dollars, but the total price tag is still unclear, according to a report by ABC News. According to the article, while most events that occur in the capital have a hard-and-fast budget, the inauguration’s many moving parts,... 

New Zealand calls on Hobbit makers to pay back $56 million subsidy Following the tremendous box office success of The Hobbit film a New Zealand official has called on the moviemakers to repay the $56 million (NZ$67 million) subsidy they received from the country’s taxpayers to fund shooting in New Zealand. The first movie in Peter Jackson’s upcoming trilogy based on J.R.R.Tolkien’s best-selling... 

Germany’s central bank is set to reclaim some of its vast gold reserves held in the US and France, a German daily reported. The move follows an audit criticizing Bundesbank for mismanagement, stating the funds had never been “verified physically.” Bundesbank voiced plans to withdraw its entire 450-ton store of gold bullion from the Bank of France in Paris, and a portion of the 1,500 tons currently... 

French car sales slump 7.8% percent in October. France’s Renault has announced some 7,500 layoffs by 2016 as the floundering company seeks to sharpen its competitive edge. Renault said on Tuesday that it has settled with unions over making 5,700 redundancies through natural attrition after making employees retire three years earlier. “If an agreement is signed with unions, this staff redeployment... 

Greek lawmakers have approved a new tax legislation intended to increase government revenues by 2.3 billion-euro (3 billion USD) in the following months. The new tax bill was approved with the support of the majority of the lawmakers in the 300-member parliament early on Saturday. The new legislation aims to tax any income above 42,000 euros (56,000 USD) per year at 42 percent. The passage of the... 

American health is in decline as new data finds that one in four US kids are on food stamps as of fiscal year 2011 and the younger generation is more prone to death and poorer health levels compared to their counterparts in other developed nations. Almost 20 million children out of 73.9 million under the age of 18 were in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, in 2011,... 

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr Australia has expanded the economic sanctions against Iran over the country’s nuclear energy program. In a statement on Thursday, Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr said that the new sanctions target Iran’s financial, trade, energy and transport sectors, the Associated Press reported. Carr claimed that the sanctions aim to mount pressure on Iran over its nuclear... 

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras arrives at the Finance and Development Ministry in Athens for a meeting with the Development minister, January 9, 2013. New official data show that Greece’s unemployment rate increased to 26.8 percent in October as the eurozone country witnesses a sixth year of recession. “Unemployment in October 2012 was 26.8 percent, compared with 19.7 percent in October... 

Eurozone jobless rate hits new record at 11.8 percent in November 2012. Official data show the unemployment rate in the eurozone has hit a new record in November, 2012, as the 17-nation bloc continues to grapple with worsening financial crisis. According to official figures, the jobless rate for November reached 11.8 percent, up from 11.7 percent in October. November comes as the eurozone’s 19th... 

Owners of wrongfully repossessed houses could now get up to $125,000 as ten major US banks agree to settle federal complaints. This will end a foreclosure review process begun by a 2011 enforcement action. Under the new agreement, those people who had their homes seized and then sold would get the biggest pay offs, while banks who failed to modify people’s loans in light of a change of income would... 

US Senator Rand Paul has called for a reduction of American foreign aid, even to allies like the Israeli regime, during his visit to Israel. In a speech at the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies on Monday, the Kentucky Senator, recently selected to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that the United States would be a friend of Israel, but “it will be harder and harder to be a friend...