ECN 10/18/07

EU court approves mandatory pension age
17.10.2007 - 09:01 CET By Lucia KubosovaAlthough discrimination on grounds of age is illegal throughout the EU, the bloc's top court has ruled that national governments are allowed to set mandatory age limits for retirement in a bid to boost employment.In a closely watched ruling unveiled on Tuesday (16 October), the European Court of Justice said that the general EU principle of equal treatment in jobs does not preclude measures "objectively and reasonably justified in the context of national law by a legitimate aim relating to employment policy and the labour market."

What Turkey Wants From Iraq -- and the US
By Jürgen Gottschlich in Istanbul
The Turkish parliament granted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday the right to order a military strike in neighboring Iraq. It's potentially a blank check for a new Iraq war -- but for now, the war drums are a way to underline Turkey's demands.

Euro hits new record against dollar
The Associated Press
Published: October 18, 2007
BERLIN: The 13-nation euro jumped to a new record on Thursday against the U.S. dollar, breaking through the US$1.43 mark after Washington reported a spike in jobless claims — the latest in a spate of bad economic news from the United States.
The euro rose to US$1.4305 in early afternoon trading in Europe after the U.S. Labor Department reported that applications for jobless benefits hit 337,000 last week — up 28,000 from the week before and the biggest one-week surge since claims jumped 42,000 in the week of Feb. 10.

Huge crowds greet Bhutto return
Benazir Bhutto has begun a triumphant open-top bus procession from Karachi airport to the city centre, after her dramatic return to Pakistan.
Hundreds of thousands of people are packing the streets, hoping to glimpse the ex-prime minister, who has returned from eight years of self-imposed exile.