Puzzled?

Lawmakers are expected to sign a bill increasing the retirement age from 60 to 62 this week, but trade unions have called another strike for Thursday and ongoing protests around the country have triggered fuel shortages.

“Today, we shouldn’t be weighing down this recovery with campaigns that are painful for the French economy and very painful for a certain number of small and medium-sized businesses,” warned Finance Minister Christine Lagarde.

With thousands of families heading off for school half-term holidays, and lawmakers expected to give the pensions bill their formal final approval on Wednesday, Sarkozy hopes the mass protest movement will die away.

But, with Sunday newspaper opinion polls showing the embattled president more unpopular than ever, trade unions and student bodies have declared at least two more days of action, and strikes continue in the key fuel sector.

The oil depot at Fos-sur-Mer, the biggest in the south of France, was back in the hands of union members opposed to President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans to raise France’s retirement age, an AFP photographer said.

Some 200 demonstrators blocked off several petrol (gasoline) tankers as riot police looked on.

“There is one question I want to answer today: Where is the growth going to come from — and where are the jobs going to come from,” Cameron said at the annual conference of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

“Over the course of this parliament — and the next — I believe we can transform our fortunes,” he told the country’s biggest employers’ body, whose leader Richard Lambert has backed the cuts.

Singapore’s SGX offered 8.2 billion US dollars to take over Sydney-based ASX to form ASX-SGX Ltd in a deal combining Australia’s strength in resources with Singapore’s more international profile and robust links to the China market.

The merger is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2011 subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. ASX and SGX will remain separate legal and locally regulated entities after the combination of their operations.

Manmohan Singh, who arrived Sunday, and his counterpart Naoto Kan were also expected to stress the warm ties linking two of Asia’s biggest democracies at a time of high diplomatic tensions between Japan and communist-ruled China.

The two premiers were due to declare the completion of talks on an economic partnership agreement, with a formal signing expected early next year, under which tariffs on 94 percent of trade would be phased out within a decade.

Geithner met Vice Premier Wang Qishan in the eastern coastal city of Qingdao a day after a Group of 20 finance ministers meeting wrapped up in South Korea.

Washington has long argued that China’s currency, the yuan, is being kept grossly undervalued in order to help Chinese exporters.

Beijing counters that loose US monetary policy is driving down the dollar and causing a wave of capital to flood emerging markets in search of higher yields.

Leaders of the 27-nation bloc face the challenge at a two-day summit starting Thursday to turn the lessons of the 2008-2009 economic crisis into hard and fast rules tightening debt and deficit discipline.

But a controversial Franco-German proposal issued days ago, denounced by many as a “diktat”, calls for the rules to be enshrined in a new draft of the hard-fought Lisbon treaty, which came into force only last December after eight years of tough talks and failed referenda.

Rio chief Tom Albanese said both companies had done “everything we could” to get the regulatory approval necessary to merge their iron ore projects in the mineral-rich Pilbara region — a deal they ultimately abandoned on Monday.

“Once we heard from the regulators we both recognised this is just getting too hard so we unfortunately — because I’m disappointed — terminated that agreement this week,” Albanese told ABC television.

“Whatever happens, there will be no additional burdens on salary earners and pensioners, and no rise in tax rates beyond what we have pledged,” Papandreou wrote in an article in To Vima daily, two weeks before his Socialist party faces the electorate in local polls.

“Everybody, both inside and outside Greece, must understand that the sacrifices made by the Greek people are unprecedented,” the premier wrote.

China last year produced 97 percent of the global supply of rare earths — a group of 17 elements used in high-tech products ranging from flat-screen televisions to iPods to hybrid cars — but is home to just a third of reserves.

The United States and Australia have large reserves, 15 and five percent respectively, but stopped mining them because of cheaper Chinese competition and domestic environmental concerns.

After all-night talks among their senior officials, G20 finance ministers forged an agreement in South Korea to “refrain from competitive devaluation of currencies” and aim for “more market-determined exchange rate systems”.

South Korean Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-Hyun said the two-day G20 meeting had laid to rest fears of a “currency war” between struggling debtors such as the United States and exporting powers such as China.

Unions showed no sign of giving up and have vowed more protests in their months-long struggle against the bill whose passage into law expected next week the government hopes will end protests that brought millions onto the streets.

The vote late Friday all but sealed the reform, the centrepiece of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s agenda, and government expects the text to be reconciled with a lower house version before being definitively adopted on Wednesday.

The company controlled by French businessman Bernard Arnault said it wanted to boost the stake to 17.1 percent at a total cost of 1.45 billion euros (two billion dollars) but was not seeking even representation on the Hermes board.

The move makes LVMH the largest Hermes shareholder after the heirs to the family share of around 70 percent.

After a two-day meeting in South Korea, G20 ministers and central bankers said in a statement that the 2008-09 crisis laid bare the need for global cooperation on banking regulation.

“We are committed to take action at the national and international level to raise standards, so that our national authorities implement global standards consistently, in a way that ensures a level playing field and avoids fragmentation of markets, protectionism and regulatory arbitrage,” they said.

Displayed in a glass case, the saucepan has a handle and lid encrusted with 270 diamonds and is decorated with 18-carat gold, brand manager Natalya Oreshkina said.

Made by German cookware brand Fissler, the utensil is not really suitable for cooking, Oreshkina added, shuddering at the idea of putting it in an oven.

While the data was better than expected, it still pointed to increasing fears that Japan’s economy is facing a slowdown after the government last week downgraded its view of the economy for the first time since February 2009.

The Japanese currency has in recent weeks traded at 15-year highs, hammering the competitiveness of the crucial export sector, despite a yen-selling intervention by authorities last month.

The answer may lie in city halls and governors’ mansions across the country, where budget constraints are forcing cuts that could be putting a bigger drag on national growth than many economists currently believe.

The first look at third-quarter gross domestic product data on Friday is likely to show the economy expanded at a 2.0 percent annualized pace, according to the consensus view of economists polled by Reuters, slightly faster than in the second quarter but still not robust enough to put a dent in high unemployment.

At a meeting in South Korea, G20 finance ministers recognized the quickening shift in economic power away from Western industrial nations by striking a surprise deal to give emerging nations a bigger voice in the International Monetary Fund.

A closing communique contained no major policy initiative after a U.S. proposal to limit current account imbalances to 4 percent of gross domestic product, a measure aimed squarely at shrinking China’s surplus, failed to win broad enough backing.

Major European stock markets were up shortly after opening with the FTSEurofirst 300 (.FTEU3) index 0.40 percent higher.

While the G20 meeting did not reach a consensus on details such as numerical targets for a country’s economic imbalances, the group found common ground on the need for more “market determined” exchange rates and concluded with a shift in power to developing economies in the International Monetary Fund — enough to avert an all-out currency war, for now.

Investors also will face a blizzard of earnings, which many analysts believe will continue to support the rally that began early this month. But any disappointments in either earnings or outlooks could, of course, trigger a sharp sell-off.

What’s more, the market is likely to continue to garner support from investors’ hopes that the Federal Reserve will take more steps to stimulate the economy, in what is known as “quantitative easing” or “QE2.” The Fed is expected to unveil its initial commitment under QE2 at its November 2-3 meeting.

Geithner, in an interview with Bloomberg Television after Group of 20 finance leader meetings concluded here on Saturday, said China views a higher yuan rate versus the dollar as in Beijing’s interest because it does not want the U.S. Federal Reserve to control its monetary policy.

“They’re an independent country, a large economy. They need the flexibility to run their policies in a way that makes sense for China,” Geithner said.

The biggest was Hillcrest Bank of Overland Park, Kansas, which had approximately $1.65 billion in total assets and $1.54 billion in total deposits.

Regulators also closed First Arizona Savings, Scottsdale, Arizona; First Suburban National Bank, Maywood, Illinois; First National Bank of Barnesville, Barnesville, Georgia; Gordon Bank, Gordon, Georgia; Progress Bank of Florida, Tampa, Florida; and First Bank of Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida.

With foreclosed properties accounting for a large portion of housing sales, and investors accounting for a large portion of buyers — particularly in some key markets with very high foreclosure rates — the implications for the broader economy could be serious.

Investors who would buy, rehabilitate and then sell or rent foreclosures were playing a “huge role,” in helping to clear the market, said housing economist Tom Lawler.

The combined exchange company would be the world’s fifth-largest by market value and rank as the second-largest stock market in Asia by number of listed companies, the two exchanges said in a joint statement. By other measures it would still rank behind Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

The deal aims to give both exchanges a better chance of prospering amid increased competition within Asia and as cross-border trading platforms like Chi-X Europe usurp the dominance of established stock exchanges.

The agreement the members of the Group of 20 reached the past weekend in South Korea, though vague on enforcement and long on promises, was hailed Monday by officials and analysts as a step forward in defusing tensions.

Still, it could turn out to be nothing more than a symbolic handshake unless the disparate forum that has become the board of directors for the global economy after the 2008 financial crisis can act on its words and build a viable enforcement mechanism.

But last week a leading manufacturer told workers their costs will jump partly because of the law. Also, a Democratic governor laid out a scheme for employers to get out of health care by shifting workers into taxpayer-subsidized insurance markets that open in 2014.

While it’s too early to proclaim the demise of job-based coverage, corporate number crunchers are looking at options that could lead to major changes. Gov. Phil Bredesen, D-Tenn., said the economics of dropping coverage are “about to become very attractive to many employers, both public and private.”

Fiat has been in tense negotiations with unions over its plan to shut down a factory in Sicily next year. The company has also said it wanted to move back production of one of its models from Poland to Italy, but in exchange for labor concessions that one union rejected.

Fiat, which controls U.S.-based Chrysler LLC, has recently raised its 2010 forecasts, and Marchionne said that trading profit would be at least euro2 billion. But of that profit, he said, “not one euro … comes from Italy.”

The previous owner told Brown that for years the vessel trolled the edge of an area closed to U.S. fishermen for conservation. Because no one told the fish the Canadians hadn’t signed on, the fish grew undisturbed in U.S. waters, then swam east into the nets of waiting Canadians.

“They were incredibly grateful for our conservation efforts,” Brown, of Point Judith, R.I, said dryly.

Recent actions by Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS in two separate fee disputes suggest that after a few years of experimenting with free, ad-supported viewing, broadcasters believe they can make more money from cable TV providers if they hold back some programming online.

That could mean new limits on online viewing are coming: Broadcasters might make fewer of their shows available to begin with, or delay when they become available – say, a month after an episode is broadcast, rather than the few hours it typically takes now.

Michaels’ departure comes at a pivotal time for the troubled media company. After nearly two years operating under bankruptcy protection, Tribune Co. is drawing up a reorganization plan that it hopes a federal judge will approve before the end of the year.

Michaels, 58, joined Tribune Co. three years ago following an ill-fated $8.2 billion buyout engineered by real estate mogul Sam Zell in 2007. Michaels became Tribune Co.’s CEO late last year. Michaels, a former radio disc jockey, won Zell’s trust as CEO of a radio broadcast company that Zell owned, Jacor Communications.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over the banks, the largest of which by far was Hillcrest Bank, based in Overland Park, Kan., with $1.6 billion in assets.

A newly chartered bank subsidiary of Boston-based NBH Holdings Corp. was set up to take over Hillcrest’s assets and deposits. The new subsidiary is called Hillcrest Bank N.A.

As the guest host Friday night of “The O’Reilly Factor,” Williams, who was axed for saying he gets nervous on a plane when he sees Muslims, mentioned several remarks made by other NPR commentators that didn’t result in firings.

“My comments about my feelings supposedly crossed this line, some line, somewhere. That crossed the line?” Williams said. “Let me tell you what you can say on National Public Radio without losing your job.”

They may get more than they’re wishing for.

The so-called individual mandate has provoked tea party conservatives, who see it as an example of big government interference in personal decisions. Now Republican candidates are running on platforms that include repealing the broader health care law. And attorneys general from some 20 states – mainly Republicans – are challenging the mandate as unconstitutional.

Yet city officials said unburned sections of the upscale Westfield Galleria at Roseville could reopen within weeks, in time for the holiday shopping season.

“I think you’re going to be surprised,” said Roseville city manager Ray Kerridge. “They’ve got to be online by Black Friday,” the day after Thanksgiving that traditionally starts major holiday sales. The mall draws shoppers from a large portion of Northern California and generates $3.2 million in annual sales taxes for the city of nearly 116,000.

Sherri McGarry of the FDA said the analysis of samples taken by the federal agency at SanGar Produce & Processing Co. on Oct. 15 isn’t complete. She did not know a specific day when the results would be available.

The company had hoped to receive the FDA’s results as early as Friday.