King Albert II will swear in Belgium’s new cabinet today, bringing an end to the country’s world record-breaking 541 days without a federal government. For the first time in 32 years, Elio Di Rupo will take over the reins as the country’s Francophone premier in Europe’s center-right dominated governments. His cabinet ministers will also be sworn in today and the new government will be set before hosting Friday’s EU summit.
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Standard & Poor’s put Germany , France , and 13 other euro-zone nations on review for a credit rating downgrade yesterday, saying “continuing disagreements among European policy makers on how to tackle” the region’s debt crisis risk damaging their financial stability.
The Asian Development Bank said Asian economies are now looking at “much greater downside risks” prior to the previous three months due to potential U.S. and Europe recessions and destabilizing capital flow risks could affect the region’s economic growth, according to Reuters. The bank said in its Asia Economic Report that with the global economy’s uncertainty, East Asian officials need “sufficient flexibility” to quickly adjust economic policies.
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Ford Motor Co. will cast a wide net in its search for CEO candidates to replace current Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally; he will be leaving within the next two years, according to the Wall Street Journal.
While Ford Chairman Bill Ford has said the company would like to hire within, they are looking externally at former Ford executives along with two internal possibilities including Americas President Mark Fields, 50, and Joe Hinrichs, 45, chief of Asian operations.
Microsoft Corporation will unveil its Xbox Live user interface upgrade today. Xbox owners will have number of new options through their Kinect motion controllers for music, movies, TV shows and games on the console through either waving their hands, saying commands or searching. With the expansion, Microsoft is further attempting to turn the Xbox into an at-home wide-ranging, entertainment venue with cloud storage to advance the experience.
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