Wednesday, 05 June 2013 17:07
Posted by Muhammad Iqbal
PARIS: France's energy minister said on Wednesday it was out of the question to apply a sharp rise in power tariffs this summer recommended by the country's energy regulator to help utility EDF cover its production costs.The country's energy regulator CRE said earlier on Wednesday that electricity tariffs for households should rise between 6.8 percent and 9.6 percent this summer to cover the mainly state-owned, former monopoly's costs.The government tends not to follow the regulator's recommendations on tariffs, seeking to subdue politically sensitive rises in prices for consumers at a time France struggles with record-high unemployment.It did not rule out any increase in power bills however, and is likely to apply part of the rise recommended, after it criticised the previous government for meddling in regulated energy tariffs."It is out of the question to accept such a cumulated rise in power prices," Energy Minister Delphine Batho told reporters after the ...
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PARIS: France's energy minister said on Wednesday it was out of the question to apply a sharp rise in power tariffs this summer recommended by the country's energy regulator to help utility EDF cover its production costs.The country's energy regulator CRE said earlier on Wednesday that electricity tariffs for households should rise between 6.8 percent and 9.6 percent this summer to cover the mainly state-owned, former monopoly's costs.The government tends not to follow the regulator's recommendations on tariffs, seeking to subdue politically sensitive rises in prices for consumers at a time France struggles with record-high unemployment.It did not rule out any increase in power bills however, and is likely to apply part of the rise recommended, after it criticised the previous government for meddling in regulated energy tariffs."It is out of the question to accept such a cumulated rise in power prices," Energy Minister Delphine Batho told reporters after the ...
MOSCOW: Thousands of commuters were evacuated from the Moscow metro on Wednesday after a fire believed to have been caused by an electric cable filled station platforms with smoke, emergency officials said.The emergencies ministry said 4,500 people were evacuated after the fire in a tunnel near the Okhotny Ryad station close to the Kremlin. At least a dozen people sought medical attention and one was hospitalised.Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2013 ...
MOSCOW: A commando raid to detain the man who ran Russia's most violent big city is one of the boldest gambles in years by President Vladimir Putin to assert control over Dagestan, a region spiralling into organised crime and Islamist insurgency.The mayor of Dagestan's capital Makhachkala for 15 years, Said Amirov was so powerful - and the Kremlin so determined to show its own muscle - that special forces from Moscow were sent to arrest ...
PASSAU: Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged 100 million euros ($130 million) in emergency aid for flood-ravaged areas on Tuesday, as surging waters that have claimed at least 11 lives and forced tens of thousands of evacuations across Europe bore down on Germany.Heavy rains across central Europe have turned vast regions into lakes, severed transport links and left historic city centres under muddy brown water, recalling devastating floods that killed dozens of people 11 years ago.Merkel, visiting ...
PARIS: France's culture minister has branded online retailer Amazon a "destroyer" of bookshops in the latest confrontation between the Socialist government in Paris and America's giants of the digital economy."Today, everyone has had enough of Amazon, which, by dumping, slashes prices to get a foothold in markets only to raise them once they have established a virtual monopoly," Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti said."It is destructive for bookshops," the minister told a conference of booksellers Monday ...
PRAGUE: Floodwaters that have killed at least 10 people across Europe on Tuesday morning peaked in the Czech capital Prague and were heading toward Germany, officials said."It's peaking in Prague right now and by the evening the wave will get to Usti and Labem," about 30 kilometres (20 miles) up the Elbe river from the German border, Petr Dvorak, spokesman for the Czech Hydrometeorogical Institute, told AFP.The floods have deluged Prague's historic centre, shuttering businesses ...
LONDON: Splitting up part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland will be put forward as an option by lawmakers examining standards within British banking, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.However, the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards is likely to stop short of making outright recommendations on the future of the bank when it publishes its final report later in June, commission sources have said.Some members of the commission, notably former finance director Nigel Lawson, ...
