AFP Business

India's debt-laden Kingfisher Airlines said Thursday its net losses almost doubled in the last quarter of 2011, plunging it further into a financial crisis that threatens its survival. The company posted a net loss of 4.44 billion rupees ($88 million) in the three months to December, compared with 2.54 billion rupees in the same period a year earlier. Sales fell about 25 percent to 13.42 billion rupees from 17.90 billion rupees, while interest charges on its huge debt pile rose to 3.5 billion...Read Full Story

The eurozone debt crisis brought the German economy, Europe's biggest, to a standstill at the end of last year, data showed Wednesday, but the pause in growth will prove only temporary, analysts said. According to preliminary figures from the national statistics office, Destatis, gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 compared with the preceding three months. That was fractionally better-than-expected -- analysts had been pencilling in a...Read Full Story

Australian banking giant Westpac unveiled a first-quarter cash profit of Aus$1.5 billion (US$1.6 billion) on Thursday despite operating conditions deteriorating due to the European debt crisis. The result compared to Aus$1.55 billion in the previous corresponding period. Westpac's net profit for the three months to December was Aus$1.4 billion. The bank said the result reflected a more challenging operating environment, which contributed to a Aus$200 million decline in markets income which...Read Full Story

US networking giant Cisco filed an appeal on Wednesday of the European Commission's approval of Microsoft's $8.5 billion takeover of Internet voice and video leader Skype. Cisco senior vice president Marthin De Beer said in a blog post that Cisco does not oppose the merger but argued that the Commission should have required greater interoperability between video-calling systems. Cisco is a leading provider of video conferencing technology. Messagenet, a European Internet communications...Read Full Story

Scandal-hit Olympus on Monday reported a net loss of 33.08 billion yen ($426 million) for the nine months to December amid a massive accounting cover-up that has tarnished the image of corporate Japan. For the full-year to March, the camera maker also said it expects a net loss of 32.0 billion yen, owing to one-off costs unrelated to the loss scandal. The forecast is the first since the scandal broke last year, with the company previously saying it could not make a full-year projection...Read Full Story

European Union competition regulators approved on Monday the $12.5-billion takeover of Motorola Mobility by Google, judging the move unlikely to impact on the market for smartphone operating systems. "We have approved the acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Google because, upon careful examination, this transaction does not itself raise competition issues," said Joaquin Almunia , the EU's anti-trust commissioner. An investigation centred on whether Google might make it harder for big-selling...Read Full Story

French nuclear power group Areva's purchase of Canadian uranium producer UraMin in 2007 for a high price was preceded by suspicious stock trades indicative of insider trading, a report said Saturday. The controversial deal valued UraMin at more than $2.5 billion (1.89 billion euros) and was struck during peak demand for enriched uranium as nuclear energy was making a comeback amid concern over global warming and high oil prices. Research conducted by La Presse de Montreal newspaper, however...Read Full Story

Austria's coalition government announced on Friday a five-year austerity plan to claw back 26.7 billion euros ($35.2 billion) in savings and increased tax revenue. The target would primarily be reached through spending cuts but one third would be achieved through increased taxes, the government said. Austria's regions will be asked to slash spending by 5.2 billion euros. The austerity package is intended to put the country in line with European Union rules on public deficits and make Austria...Read Full Story

British Airways and Japan Airlines have agreed a tie-up on flights between Europe and the world's third-biggest economy in a new cost-cutting initiative, BA parent group IAG said on Wednesday. " International Airlines Group (IAG) and Japan Airlines (JAL) have agreed plans for a new joint business between British Airways and JAL on flights between Europe and Japan ," IAG said in a statement. "The joint business would benefit customers by providing better links between Europe and Japan, greater...Read Full Story

Greek unions Friday unleashed a 48-hour strike against new austerity measures to go before parliament and required by the European Union and the IMF in exchange for badly needed aid. The measures, dubbed "the grave of Greek society," sparked a strike call by the CSEE and Adedy unions that together claim more than a million members. The Greek population totals a little more than 10.7 million. Protestors were called again to Syntagma Square , the scene of often violent demonstrations against...Read Full Story