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Statoil confirmed Wednesday it was in talks to sell its stake in the giant oil field of West Kourna 2, in Iraq, Lukoil and its Russian partner, according to Iraqi sources the sector, two companies have reached an agreement.

Statoil has a 18.75% share, and sales to the Russian Lukoil will give a 75%. The remaining 25% is held by a public company in Iraq.

An agreement will allow the Russian company to become the only dealer outside of one of the largest oil projects in the pipeline in Iraq, while Norway will become the first major Western band to withdraw from an Iraq project in recent years.

"Statoil has reached an agreement with Lukoil to sell its stake in Kourna West 2 and the Iraqi Oil Ministry has approved the agreement," said a source from the Iraqi oil sector.

Another Iraqi source confirmed the agreement. "Statoil has sold its stake in Lukoil and Lukoil is now the sole operator of Kourna West 2", it was reported.

For its part, Statoil has simply said that the process was underway.

"Lukoil and the Iraqi authorities have previously confirmed that we had initiated a process to transfer shares of our project Kourna 2 West in Iraq," said a spokesman for Statoil. "We will when this process is completed," he added, without comment on the transaction amount or timing.

The Norwegian public company has been considering for some time to leave Iraq to refocus on less risky assets around the world, according to industry sources. Statoil plans to invest several billion dollars in deposits in the U.S. or offshore Norway.

The financial center of New York is on a diet. After reducing the 25% bonus in 2011, it should delete 4300 jobs this year. The New York Stock Exchange

Employees' bonuses on Wall Street fell by around 25% in 2011 compared to the previous year, according to an estimate released Monday by an independent agency in New York.

"We believe that the benefits of Wall Street totaled $ 10.5 billion in 2011, a level well below that of recent years, and that bonuses for the year fell 25%," says a news agency audit of the City of New York.

If compensation practices had changed since the 2008 crisis, with all or most bonus blocked for several years and their payment spread over time, generous bonuses had continued to be paid up to date on New York. Bank executives' bonuses on Wall Street in 2010 had even begun to rise.

The CEO of the investment bank Goldman Sachs Lloyd Blankfein saw his pay triple for example in 2010 to two million. The other four main executives of the bank had also received the same salary increase while the performance of Goldman Sachs had been poor in 2010 (including net income had declined 37% and the turnover was eroded).

Moreover, Wall Street is expected to lose many jobs in 2012, according to the agency. "We believe that Wall Street will eliminate 4,300 jobs this year and wages, including bonuses, decrease by 7.5%," added the independent organization funded by public funds. The paper explains these predictions by "the changing environment in the financial sector", the economic slowdown caused by "problems in the euro area" and "rising oil prices caused by tensions in the Middle East."

For these reasons, the Agency Audit of New York lowered its forecasts for job creation in all sectors: it table more than 22,000 jobs created in New York in 2012, against 38,800 estimated in December and 44,400 in 2013 (against 50,000).

Emerging nations demand that the governance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) be reformed before they inject new capital, said Friday the president of Brazil Dilma Rousseff.

These remarks came as some voices in the G20 countries that the IMF to receive new funds to help Europe in particular.

Brazil is prepared to increase its contribution to the IMF, but he wants in return, emerging economies have more a say.

"Emerging markets may be asked to participate in the capitalization of the Fund (…) But for this they need to be more involved in managing the Fund, "said Dilma Rousseff at an event held in Porto Alegre in southern Brazil.

Last month, Brazil, combined with all other countries of BRIC – Russia, India, China and South Africa – had tried to coordinate support for the euro area.

Brazilian policy makers hope that the meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers held in Paris on Friday and Saturday leading to action.

The number of unemployed in Britain at the highest since 1994, the private did not offset the losses of public sector jobs, a statistic that feeds a little over fears of a recession.

The number of unemployed increased by 17,500 in September, announced the National Statistics Office Wednesday, however, below the 25,000 expected by economists.

But according to the methodology of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the number of unemployed increased by 114,000 over a period of three months to August, to 2.57 million, the highest number since October 1994.

Always within the meaning of the ILO and the period from June to August, the unemployment rate rose to 8.1%, the highest since October 1996, compared with 8.0% giving a consensus.

The Bank of England last week launched new measures to support growth, but Spencer Dale, a senior economist, told Reuters that the economy weakens more likely in the fourth quarter.

A fault of Greece have unpredictable consequences, including the risk that the debt crisis in the euro area spread to other countries, said Commission President José Manuel Barroso, quoted in the German daily Bild.

Discussions between Athens and the inspectors of the mission the International Monetary Fund (IMF)-European Union (EU)-European Central Bank (ECB) continued for a payment of a new tranche under the aid plan international countries.

Greece could be short of money in the month of November without this slice of eight billion euros.

"If we leave Greece, there are more chances for the crisis is spreading to other countries," said José Manuel Barroso in an interview to be published by Bild on Monday.

The President of the European Commission stressed that no one had ever experienced a bankruptcy of a member state of the euro area.

"We have entered uncharted territory and we are talking of solutions that have never been tested before."

Didier Reynders, Belgian Finance Minister, also made comments rather alarmist, saying that Greece should be helped to prevent financial contagion across what had happened during the collapse of Lehman Brothers in any late summer 2008.

"If we do not solve the Greek problem, if there is a danger of contagion to Spain and Italy, while the worst case scenario could materialize," he said in an interview published Saturday by the Greek magazine Proto.

Nicolas Sarkozy traveled to Berlin on Sunday for talks with Angela Merkel of crisis, with a priority to overcome their differences on how to recapitalize European banks.

In announcing the end of September it moves ahead in the German capital, the French president had indicated he would discuss with the Chancellor "ways and means to accelerate economic integration in the euro area and implement as soon as possible" the new aid plan for Greece approved July 21 by the Europeans.

DEBT REDUCTION GREEK underestimated DIT SCHÄUBLE

Wolfgang Schäuble, German Finance Minister, said that Europe may have underestimated the amount of debt should be reduced Greek summit on 21 July.

The summit, which established the principle of a second aid plan for Greece and that of an extension of the powers of EFSF, provides that private creditors agree to a 21% discount on their debt Greek.

"It is possible that, in July, we held a level of debt reduction is too low," said Wolfgang Schäuble, quoted by the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the Eurogroup, said a few days ago that the finance ministers of the euro area were reviewing the extent of private sector involvement in the second bailout of Greece.

"There are significant risks to the crisis deepens and widens," said Wolfgang Schäuble.

Greece is at a crossroads and must implement "structural reforms much more stringent" to avoid failure, said the head of the IMF mission in Greece, Poul Thomsen, quoted by the German Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag .

"Greece is at a crossroads," said Thomsen. "It is clear that the program will not work if the authorities do not take a path that requires structural reforms much harder than we've seen so far."

"Greece is two steps forward, one back," said Thomsen."The Greek government has much of the most difficult changes are to come."

About the austerity measures, Didier Reynders warned however that we should not go too far: "We do not want a cure that will kill Greece."

Greek Socialist Prime Minister George Papandreou could propose the formation of a unity government with the opposition to try out his country from the financial crisis, a local newspaper reported Saturday.

The government has however denied reports published by the financial daily Imerisia which raises the possibility of a resignation of Papandreou order to reach a political consensus and bring together a large majority in parliament supporting a coalition government.

The Greek government approved on Sunday evening a plan to reduce the number of employees, matching the most controversial release of financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union (EU).

The project creates a "worklist", where 30,000 employees would be affected by the end of the year with a drop of 40% of their compensation. After a year they would be dismissed.

"Measuring worklist was unanimously approved," he told Reuters a vice minister at the meeting of the cabinet.

The European Union will set up a system of tougher sanctions against countries that allow spinning deficits. View of the European Parliament.

The European Union will significantly tighten its budgetary discipline to learn from the debt crisis, following a vote Wednesday the European Parliament which provides for sanctions easier to take than in the past against states that allow spinning their deficits. This vote will allow the entry into force of a device to strengthen the European Stability Pact, discussed for nearly a year and already agreed by member states of the European Union.

In the future, financial sanctions will fall faster and easier, in the form of cash deposit in blocked accounts can be converted into fines against countries deemed to be lax. This mechanism is intended as the consideration for the implementation of the Financial Assistance Fund for countries in trouble in the euro area.Reform – called "6 Pack" because it's actually six pieces of legislation-was originally proposed by the European Commission to draw lessons from the debt crisis in Greece.

Reform had become necessary as the Stability Pact, as it was originally designed has proved largely ineffective as too little deterrent. Governments have spent their time in ten years around it. The reform will allow the Commission to seek remedies and even punish states that move away from deficit criteria (3% of GDP) and debt (60% of GDP) by claiming that the State would make the ignore the deposit of a sum equivalent to 0.2% of GDP. The six pieces of legislation received the support of conservatives and liberals.

The left has denounced reform too focused on rigor and not enough on the recovery.The reform "is good news for the EU", welcomed the President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek after the vote. "Reform is an austerity pact that is based on cuts and penalties. It leaves no flexibility to EU states for spending smart, targeted investments," he regretted the contrary, the socialist Stephen Hughes .

European shares ended sharply lower Friday, ending mostly to four sessions of consecutive increase after the announcement of a halt in job creation in the United States in August.

The CAC 40 index fell 3.59% to 3148.53 points. The benchmark index of the Paris, however, who managed to stay on top of an important support points in 3136, managed to record a gain of 1.97% for the week.

Other major European markets also stumbled, leaving London and Milan respectively 2.34% and 3.89%.Frankfurt, who had already lost ground yesterday, yielded 3.36%.

For the week, the London was up 3.16% while its German counterpart has remained stable (0.02%).

"There are fears a 'double dip' (relapse), several indicators have turned to orange or red. It's like 'take the cash and run' on the market," said Fabrice Cousté, CEO of CMC Markets France, highlighting the rapid exit of investors from stocks to safe havens.

The Swiss franc and back ground on the European single currency within 1.12 franc per euro (1.1174 francs to 6:13 p.m.), 1.13 franc against most of the day.Similarly, gold rose 2.82% to 1,875.96 dollars per ounce.

SYSTEMIC CRISIS

Another illustration of the renewed risk aversion of investors, the performance of the German government bond (Bund) and 10 years fell below 2% in the wake of the publication of U.S. employment figures.

"We will turn to the Fed and its special meeting two days. But the Fed is out of breath and lack of ammunition.We should not have EQ3, but probably something more technical, "said Fabrice Cousté.

The latter warns that in the meantime the markets should still live on hard times even if investment opportunities should arise in securities of groups able to significantly increase their prices or capacity of important innovations.

Friday, fears of relapse into recession in developed countries have particularly affected the cyclicals and financials.

As for banks, Alpha Bank has dropped 9.26%, Barclays 8.4% and 7.38% Credit Agricole. The automotive industry, PSA fell 5.99%, 5.17% of Volkswagen and Fiat of 4.98%.

"The market values ​​have a relapse into recession scenario.Only a systemic crisis as in 2008 is not yet 'pricée ", explains Benoît Peloille, equity strategist at Natixis.

"However, central banks have just replaced the emergency measures that had helped break the stalemate in the interbank market resulting from the collapse of Lehman Brothers," he adds.

The number of jobseekers in France rose by 36,100 in July, the largest monthly increase in two years. The trend of 2011 is back up. Since the crisis in 2008, the situation of the labor market in France is particularly depressing.

Xavier Bertrand had prepared the ground. The news is, however, the effect of a cold shower: the number of jobseekers in Class A rose by a further 1.3% in July on the rise year on year to 2.8%. A bad result that erases completely stabilize the labor market seen earlier this year. Worse, when you take a step back, the situation of the labor market in France since the crisis began in early 2008 seems particularly depressed.Review detailed figures of black unemployment.

33%: This is the increase since January 2008 the number of registered unemployed persons in categories A, B, C, that is to say job seekers must be positive acts of job search. In nearly four years, this category has swelled from just over one million people.

57%: This is the rise in unemployment for more than 50 years since January 2008. While the youth unemployment is a wound in France. But it is the elderly who have suffered most from the deterioration of the labor market and plans of downsizing in companies.

453 days: This is the average length of job seekers registered at employment center. In January 2008 it was 412 days. The long-term unemployment (more than one year of enrollment) affects 38% of registered voters, against 32% four years ago.The number of registered unemployed for over two years increased by nearly 27% over the last twelve months.

Only 21% of output for Occupation Pole of the unemployed who found a job. An extremely low which demonstrates the low dynamism of recruitment. Radiation administrative account for 10% of outputs at Pole Occupation: they jumped from just over 7% in one year.

16%: This is the decline since January 2008 the number of sustainable jobs (that is to say, longer than 6 months) received Pole Employment. The precariousness of the job market is growing again. In one year, the proposed job "casual" (lasting less than one month) rose 4.7%.

Austria, the Netherlands and Slovakia want to turn the establishment of a collateral attached to loans in Athens if the agreement between Finland and Greece is approved by the countries of the euro area.

"The model collateral must be open to all countries in the euro area.We'll see if this is the case, "said Harald Waiglen, spokesman for the Austrian Ministry of Finance, in the pages of Helsingin Sanomat.

The three countries want to follow the lead of Finland have paid for approximately 11% rescue plan 109 billion euros granted to Athens.

Finland has reached an agreement with Greece on the collateral attached to loans from Helsinki to Athens, which should facilitate the establishment of a Nordic country using the most indebted to the members of the euro area.

The establishment of a collateral – collateral assets in a loan – its loans was a sine qua non for Finland agrees to participate in the Plan aid to Greece.

The country's cooperation with this plan is considered important, not because of the size of its stake, but because it is one of six members of the euro area to receive a rating of "AAA" , the highest possible.

A representative of the Greek government but warned that extending this option to other states in the euro area would be to nullify the effects of emergency aid.

So he quickly indicated that Athens did not evoke such an event with other countries than Finland.

"We do not discuss this," he said on condition of anonymity."Launching such discussions would be to cancel the effect of the rescue plan."

The Greek Minister of Finance declined to comment on this information.

"If other Member States of the euro area require collateral to ensure their contribution to the second bailout plan, the amount of funds available is dwindling, threatening the success of this new aid," said Theodore Krintas Attica Bank.

Marco Valli, chief economist at UniCredit in the euro area, for its part believes that multiple requests "undermines the credibility of the assistance plan."