German Economy Minister Brigitte Zypries asked the European Commission to look into possible countermeasures against the United States, following tough sanctions against Russia that could potentially hit European companies. “We consider this to be a violation of international law,” Zypries told local newspapers over the weekend. “The Americans cannot punish German companies because they operate […]

Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to cut more than 400 jobs in the Netherlands, mainly at its major projects and energy technology operations, as the oil giant shifts its business model in response to lower oil prices, according to an internal document seen by Reuters. The world’s second-largest oil company by market capitalization said in […]

Euro zone inflation was stable in July but its core measure, which is closely watched by the European Central Bank, went up to a four-year high against market expectations of a drop, flash estimates released by Eurostat showed on Monday. In a separate release, the European Union’s statistics office said unemployment in the 19-country currency […]

Afghan security forces battled gunmen near a police compound and the nearby Iraqi embassy in Kabul on Monday following a suicide bombing, officials said. The target of the attack was not immediately clear but police on the scene said that the gunmen appeared to have taken cover in the embassy building in a business district […]

Heineken, the world’s second-largest beer maker, reported higher than expected earnings in the first half of 2017, with the strongest profit growth in Europe thanks to a late Easter and an early start of warm summer weather. The Dutch brewer of Europe’s top-selling lager Heineken, as well as Tiger and Sol, said volumes, revenue and […]

HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, was widely expected to announce that it will buy back its own shares at between $1.5 billion to $4 billion in the second half of 2017, market watchers said. The bank had disappointed markets with just a $1 billion share buyback plan in the first six months of the year, after […]

In northern Siberia, rising temperatures are causing mysterious giant craters — and even more dire consequences could be in store, say climate scientists. The Russian province’s long-frozen ground, called permafrost, is thawing, triggering massive changes to the region’s landscape and ecology. It could even threaten human lives. “The last time we saw a permafrost melting […]

As the German election campaign gets more robust in the run-up to September 24, you will probably see the euro issues moving center stage. The Socialist challenger Martin Schultz unsuccessfully tried to attack using Germany’s contested migration/refugee policies. He is now turning to the future of the monetary union and the damage caused by a […]

A 34-year-old man opened fire in a nightclub in the southern German city of Konstanz on Sunday, killing one person and seriously injuring three others, police said. The suspect suffered life-threatening injuries in a gunfight with police officers outside the music venue after they had rushed to the scene shortly after the incident around 0230 […]

The 26-year-old migrant who killed one person and injured six others in a knife attack in a Hamburg supermarket on Friday was known to German security forces as an Islamist, the city-state’s interior minister said. Andy Grote told a news conference on Saturday that an initial investigation found that the man, an asylum seeker who […]