Reuters

By Emma-Victoria Farr and Amy-Jo Crowley

BERLIN (Reuters) - Advisers and investors congregated at the annual SuperReturn conference in Berlin this week as a still struggling private equity market cast a shadow over the meeting for a second year, although there were flashes of optimism among the attendees.

At a long row of streetside alpine huts where an overflow of the globe's top deal brokers conversed, some talked of resilience in the... (continue reading...)

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank cut interest rates for the first time in five years on Thursday but kept investors in the dark about its next move given increasing uncertainty over inflation after a sharp slowdown in the past year.

The ECB lowered its record-high deposit rate by 25 basis points to 3.75%, joining the central banks of Canada, Sweden and Switzerland in starting to unwind some of the steepest rate hikes used to tame a... (continue reading...)

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian investigators said on Thursday they had detained a French citizen on suspicion of gathering information about the activities of the Russian military.

The Investigative Committee, which handles serious crimes, said a criminal case had been opened against the Frenchman, whom it did not name, for violating a Russian law on "foreign agents".

It said he had violated a section of the statute punishing those who fail to... (continue reading...)

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday demanded a parliamentary probe into stock market moves before and after the exit polls following the country's recently concluded national elections.

(Reporting by Shivam Patel and Sakshi Dayal; Editing by YP Rajesh)

ROME (Reuters) - Corruption in Italy has declined over the last few years but remains a problem, with business owners and the self employed the most affected, a report published on Thursday by the national statistics bureau found.

The reduction, although significant, leaves a large number of Italians, particularly those in business, vulnerable to illicit demands that could impact their livelihoods and the overall economic landscape.

The... (continue reading...)