The Telegraph – Bruno Waterfield The European Union is to ban olive oil jugs and dipping bowls from restaurant tables The small glass jugs filled with green or gold coloured extra virgin olive oil are familiar and traditional for restaurant goers across Europe but they will be banned from 1 January 2014 after a decision [...]

The Telegraph – Jeremy Warner The latest brainwave from Brussels has the City in its sights, even if Britain goes it alone Of all the nonsense to have come out of Brussels over the years, there is little quite so self-defeating, politically driven, and generally threatening to economic wellbeing as the proposed new Financial Transaction [...]

The Telegraph - Louise Armitstead, Chief Business Correspondent A stagnant economy, a weak President and a jump in car burnings are all signs of a looming crisis in France. The billionaire boss of CQS, one of London’s biggest hedge funds, has written to investors warning them that the France could trigger another more dangerous phase of the [...]

CNN Republicans using the Internal Revenue Service scandal to slam health care reform have a new twist in their argument. Sarah Hall Ingram, who heads the implementation of the Affordable Care Act at the IRS, formerly led the agency’s tax exempt/government entities division, the same division that’s now taking heat for targeting conservative groups in the [...]

Townhall.com – Guy Benson Remember what we were told when this explosive story first broke less than a week ago?  The IRS official in charge of tax exemptions for organizations saidthe improper methods employed within her division were executed by “low level workers” in Cincinnati who weren’t motivated by “political bias,” and impacted roughly 75 organizations?  Wrong, wrong [...]

The Washington Examiner - Joel Gehrke IRS officials refused to grant tax exempt status to two pro-life organizations because of their position on the abortion issue, according to a non-profit law firm, which said that one group was pressured not to protest a pro-choice organization that endorsed President Obama during the last election. “In one case, [...]

BBC French President Francois Hollande says recession is now “threatening the very identity of Europe”. Speaking at a news conference in Paris, he said the financial crisis was now under control and “behind us” but “what is hitting Europe is a recession… provoked by the austerity policy”. Mr Hollande was speaking after figures showed France [...]

The Telegraph – Emma Rowley Britain is on track to “accelerate” its shale gas program, according to Michael Fallon, the energy minister. The Government will next year launch the UK’s 14th onshore licensing round, he said, announcing that engineering consultancy AMEC has been hired to do the environmental assessment of plots’ suitability for exploration. The [...]

The Telegraph – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard My colleague Jeremy Warner has set off a storm in the Spanish press and something close to a diplomatic incident by asserting in a blog that Spain is insolvent. The Telegraph has been accused by Spanish newspapers of launching a “brutal attack”, succumbing to “Hispanophobia”, leading an Anglo-Saxon assault, and otherwise [...]

CNN - Chelsea J Carter, Drew Griffin and David Fitzpatrick The nation’s top tax collector resigned Wednesday amid controversy over Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative groups that applied for federal tax-exempt status. The official, acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, was aware employees were targeting conservative groups in May 2012, according to the agency. But Miller, then the [...]

BBC The recession across the 17-nation eurozone has continued into a sixth quarter, figures show. The bloc’s economy shrank by 0.2% between January and March, according to official figures. That left the region’s economy 1% smaller for the period compared with a year ago. Individual data for member countries showed nine were in recession, although [...]

BBC France has entered its second recession in four years after the economy shrank by 0.2% in the first quarter of the year, official figures show. Its economy shrank by the same amount in the last quarter of 2012. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth. France has record unemployment and [...]