General Politics

ROUNDUP: No more bonuses in case of failure, Sarkozy says

No more bonuses in case of failure, Sarkozy says Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday said that there should be no more severance payments or bonuses to executives of French firms who have performed badly.

"There must be no more 'golden handshakes'. There must be no more bonuses or rewarding of free shares or stock options in a company that receives state aid, that undertakes massive job cuts or resorts to putting large numbers of its employees on short-time work," Sarkozy said in an address in the northern city of Saint Quentin.

2ND ROUNDUP: US seeks broad new powers to take over troubled firms

US seeks broad new powers to take over troubled firmsWashington  - US authorities need broad new emergency powers to take over financial firms whose collapse could threaten the wider economy, the country's top economic officials warned Tuesday in the wake of the controversial bail-out of insurance giant American International Group Inc (AIG).

Facing a groundswell of public anger over Wall Street and AIG's role in the financial crisis, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke defended their rescue of AIG before lawmakers as critical to the stability of the US economy.

2ND ROUNDUP: Search for prime minister continues in Hungary

Search for prime minister continues in HungaryBudapest  - Hungary's Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany announced on Tuesday evening that the Socialist Party leadership had drawn up a shortlist of three potential candidates for his replacement.

He named the banker and former finance minister Gyorgy Suranyi, the historian and former head of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Ferenc Glatz, and Andras Vertes, head of the economic research

institute GKI.

"The MSZP leadership recommends that official consultations should begin with and about these three candidates," Gyurcsany said.

ROUNDUP: Search for prime minister continues in Hungary

Search for prime minister continues in Hungary Budapest  - Hungary was awash on Tuesday with speculation over who will fill Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany's shoes if, as promised, he departs on April 14.

Gyurcsany announced on Saturday that he would step down to allow a new leader with broader popular and political support to tackle Hungary's ever deeper financial crisis.

His governing Socialist party continued talks with its former coalition partner, the liberal Alliance of Free Democrats, and also met the conservative Hungarian Democratic Forum.

URGENT: Report: Labour votes to join Netanyahu coalition

Labour votes to join Netanyahu coalition Tel Aviv  - The Israeli Labo

1ST LEAD: US signals huge anti-drug push with Mexico

US signals huge anti-drug push with Mexico Washington - The United States Monday said it was giving a huge boost to its cooperation with Mexican law enforcement officials to help bring down the illicit drug trade and was even doubling and quadrupling its anti-drug efforts on the border.

The efforts come as Mexico last week beefed up its military presence to 10,000 armed troops in the violence-plagued border city of Juarez.

"The Department of Justice stands ready to take the fight to the Mexican drug cartels," vowed Deputy Attorney General David Ogden at the briefing to reporters at the White House.

Pages