AMERICA: Regulators are examining whether Morgan Stanley, the investment bank that shepherded Facebook through its stock market flotation last week, selectively informed clients of an analyst’s negative report about the company before the shares started trading.
Rick Ketchum, head of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the self-policing body for the securities industry, said the question is “a matter of regulatory concern” for his organisation and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
GREECE: Greece’s four biggest commercial banks are to receive an 18 billion euros (£14.5bn) cash injection from the European bailout fund.
The recapitalisation comes amid political uncertainty in the debt-stricken country after inconclusive elections on May 6 saw a rise in support for anti-bailout parties and cast doubt over Greece’s future involvement in the single currency.
EGYPT: Millions of Egyptians are going to the polling stations to freely choose their first president since last year’s removal of long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak.
After decades of authoritarian rule, people waited patiently in long lines across the nation.
AFGHANISTAN: Two foreign doctors and three of their Afghan colleagues have been kidnapped in a remote area in the extreme north-east of Afghanistan, officials said today.
Abdul Maroof Rasikh, spokesman for the governor of Badakhshan province, said it was unclear who had abdcuted the five.
AMERICA: Several groups of American secret service employees visited clubs, bars and brothels in Colombia and engaged in “morally repugnant” behaviour before a visit by President Barack Obama, a US senator has said.
Susan Collins said the agents’ actions in the prostitution scandal could have provided a foreign intelligence service, drug cartels or other criminals with opportunities for blackmail that could have threatened the president’s safety.
CHINA: A European envoy has held out a possible compromise in a dispute with China over carbon emissions charges on airlines, saying today that Europe might alter its system if Beijing helps to negotiate global regulations.
China, India, the United States and Russia oppose the European Union charges which took effect on January 1. Beijing has barred its carriers from co-operating and has suspended purchases of European aircraft.
