Greek Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos said Tuesday that Greece should "alas" return to parliamentary elections, in principle within one month, without an agreement on forming a coalition government.

"We're going back to the elections in a few days, in very bad conditions," said Mr. Venizelos, after a crucial meeting with four other political party leaders, convened by the Head of the State Karolos Papoulias. "The efforts of government formation have concluded without success," confirmed a statement from the presidency, played live by a journalist of public television Net.

Mr. Papoulias is to convene at 10:00 Wednesday the leaders of all parties to establish an interim government, charged with caretaker pending the holding of early parliamentary news. Tuesday's meeting was the last chance to form a government "personalities" to get the country out of political deadlock, which worries the European partners and creditors of Greece, EU and IMF. Participants at the meeting were the Conservative leader of New Democracy, Antonis Samaras, M. Venizelos and the leaders of the radical left Syriza, Alexis Tsipras, the Democratic Left, Fotis Kouvelis and training national-populist independent Greeks, Panos Kammenos. The neo-Nazi party there was not invited, and the Communists have declined the invitation.

"Greece is heading towards elections, the meeting did not yield results," said Mr. Kouvelis, after the end of the meeting. This leader had proposed "an ecumenical government" but because "the refusal of the party of the radical left Syriza, this government could not be established," he said. Greece has been trying for over a week to form a coalition government after no party won a majority in parliamentary elections on May 6.

The U.S. economy created 115,000 non-farm jobs last month, according to statistics from the Labor Department, and the unemployment rate fell to 8.1%, a level not seen since January 2009, when it stood at 7.8%.

The figures for February and March were revised upward, respectively 154,000 (against 120,000) and 259,000 (against 240,000).

Economists polled by Reuters had expected an average of 170,000 jobs created in April after the figure of 120.000 was originally planned for March.

AstraZeneca offers Ardea $ 32 per share, representing a premium of 54% over the closing price Friday of society, and values ​​acquired at a billion dollars after deduction of cash held by Ardea.

Both groups said they expect the transaction to close in the second or third quarter, adding that shareholders representing approximately 30% of Ardea had agreed to vote for the operation. 

The action Astrazeneca yielded 0.87% at the London Stock Exchange at 7:35 GMT, but doing better than the market (-1.16%).

The group is facing generic competition on several of its key drugs, including anti-psychotic Seroquel, and just to renew its range. Earlier this month, he concluded an agreement on joint development and commercialization of five treatments of the portfolio of the U.S. biotech Amgen.

The biotechnology sector is currently characterized by a wave of mergers and acquisitions and consolidation attempts.

GlaxoSmithKline announced last week it had offered to buy Human Genome Sciences for approximately $ 2.6 billion (2 billion), an offer rejected by American society. Roche has attempted unsuccessfully to acquire Illumina to $ 6.8 billion.

Serge Kampf, aged 77, had reserved the option when renewing his term as CEO in 2010.

The Board of Directors of Capgemini, met on Wednesday, decided "to return to the classic formula of a CEO (and …) to appoint Mr. Paul Hermelin this function from the date of the next Annual General Meeting ", May 24, announced the leading European IT services, in a statement ..

……. Serge Kampf was appointed honorary president of Capgemini vice president and board to greet his "immense contribution" to a company he founded in 1967 and he led for 45 years

. In exchange, the action Capgemini earned a , 2% to 31.58 euros at 9:22, outperforming the CAC 40 (0.4%) and giving a market capitalization of 4.9 billion euros

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Qatar Holding, one arm of sovereign investment fund Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), said holding 12.83% stake in Lagardere and have surpassed the 10% voting rights, to 10.05%.

Qatar Holding says it reserves the right to further increase its stake in the company but said not wanting to take control. 

However, it indicates that it intends to seek appointment to the supervisory board of Lagardère and "talk with any interested actors, as appropriate, to strategic partnerships to the credit ation of long-term value for shareholders, with the stipulation that there is currently no specific plans in this regard ".

Qatar says it is not targeting any merger or reorganization, liquidation or transfer, modification of activity or status of Lagardère. He also says not to consider proposed cancellation or issuance of securities of Lagardère.

Nobody was immediately available for comment at Lagardère announced.

The Qatari fund became the largest shareholder Lagardère in December with 10.07% of the capital, before the family Lagardère (Lagardère Capital & Management), which holds 9.6% .

The market hardly reacted to this information, the Lagardère shares remaining unchanged at 23.56 euros at noon in a market down by 0.75%.

Lagardère has suffered a heavy loss in 2011 (707 million), due to massive write-downs on past sports. (See)

This diversification strategy considered by Arnaud Lagardère, General Partner of the group, ended last year with an operating loss of six million euros, after performance trading below expectations, loss of contract disputes and more.

In anticipation of upcoming elections, the Institute of Business and Expansion are now Bayrou, president of the Democratic Movement and candidate for president, Xavier Huillard, president of the Business Institute and CEO of Vinci, and the economist Jean-Marc Daniel. They discuss the theme: "Produce in France: what works to restore prosperity?"

The debate is moderated by Franck Dedieu, a journalist at L'Expansion. It is broadcast live on Dailymotion. You can also comment on twitter and ask questions via the # debateco.

The two main Spanish unions, UGT and CCOO, announced Friday a general strike on March 29 to protest "against the labor reform and defense of public services", to be held on the eve of the budget in 2012 marked by the austerity.

The unions denounce "unilateral decision" Conservative government "to implement a labor reform and a new drive and fiscal effort," said CCOO in a statement.

By coincidence, this strike will take place at the 100th day of the power of conservative Mariano Rajoy, who took office Dec. 21. His government adopted on February 11 a new reform to make it more flexible labor market, including lower redundancy payments and measures to stimulate youth employment.

The aim is to boost job creation in a country at record levels of unemployment among industrialized countries (22.85%) and particularly dramatic among children under 25 years (48.6%), but the unions believe that the measure will mainly facilitate dismissals. "This reform will not generate employment, it will destroy even more," said CCOO, and "the government itself acknowledges that this year we lost 650,000 jobs."

The government announced last week expect a further rise in unemployment in 2012, which should hit 24.3% of the workforce. But he remains focused on rigor and plans to adopt March 30 a draft austerity budget, as promised to bring the public deficit of 8.51% of GDP at end 2011 to 5.8% in late 2012.

In approving the strike on Friday, the union also announced its "determination to maintain pressure and social workers after that date would alter the reform if the government does not rectify and is not willing to negotiate."

General strikes are rare in Spain, where only five have been convened since the return of freedom of association in 1977. The last was held September 29, 2010 to protest against a previous labor market reform introduced by the Socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. She had had mixed success, but since many events are held regularly, especially in regions that manage sensitive budgets of health and education and have adopted strict austerity.

Against the new labor reform, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, waving red flags, had marched on February 19 in the cities of Spain. A new day of action is planned this Sunday, with events announced throughout the country. elc-ka/sg/lo

Greece may need a third international aid plan of 50 billion euros in 2015, says the German weekly Der Spiegel published Sunday.

Troika, representing the creditors of Greece (EU, ECB and IMF), wrote in a draft of its latest report that it is not at all certain that Greece can return to credit markets in 2015. Its external financing needs over the period 2015-2020 could then reach 50 billion euros. But Der Spiegel also states that this passage was withdrawn at the request of the German government.  

The newspaper also claims that the ECB is expected to trigger the collective action clause (CAC) that will allow Athens to force private creditors reluctant to take part in the Greek debt relief. This clause, contained in the Act on the swap of bonds between the Greek state and its institutions creditors, may be triggered if at least 66% of banks participating in the operation and require creditors reluctant to join the exchange program of debt, thereby increasing the enrollment rate automatically to 100% The debt exchange transaction itself will be held March 12.

It will allow Greece to delete 107 of the 200 billion euros of its debt held by private creditors. This erasure is a prerequisite for the payment of 130 billion public aid of the second rescue plan approved Thursday in Brussels.

Investors also took profits after a rise of more than 10% of the Nikkei in the month just ended, its best performance in February for 20 years.

The Nikkei lost 15.87 points to 9,707.37 and the Topix broader, yielded 4.42 points (0.53%) to 831.54. 

At his hearing Wednesday before the Committee on Financial Services of the House of Representatives, Ben Bernanke noted that there had been improvements in the labor market, even if e also said he had to accelerate growth in the United States that will reduce an unemployment rate considered unacceptable. (See)

Recognition of a better employment has, ultimately, been interpreted as not going in the direction of an imminent new repurchase program obligations.

"The recent increase was largely due to the high liquidity (available), so in hindsight expectations of further easing, this element will disappear and could weigh on market s actions, "Judge Masafumi Yamamoto, currency strategist at Barclays Capital chief.

Values, Softbank closed up nearly 2% after winning an auction on mobile frequency coveted.

In Paris, around 9:35, the CAC 40 gained 0.54% to 3,460 points. In London, the FTSE advance of 0.33% and Frankfurt, the DAX is 0.64%.

However, the gains could be limited, due to persistent concerns over the fate of Greece, which Standard & Poor's Monday lowered the sovereign credit rating to SD (default selective).

German lawmakers approved Monday by a large majority the last bailout of Greece, despite pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel that Germany cease to pay money in a "bottomless pit". Analysts say the vote could undermine Merkel, however politically, making it harder still a green light from Berlin to the strengthening of emergency funds in the euro area.

Banks are among the highest increases sectoral European sector index gaining 0.6%. Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas 1.8% gain.

The action PSA earns 8% and signs the largest increase in the CAC 40, the French manufacturer pursuing advanced talks with General Motors as part of their proposed strategic alliance in Europe.

Casino earns 1.6% after announcing a sharp increase in its annual results, driven by a contribution from emerging countries, which more than offset the decline in performance in France.

TomTom gives up nearly 18%, the specialist Dutch navigational instruments having unveiled a 76% drop in net profit in the fourth quarter and said it expects that the decline in sales will continue this year.

Bunds are stable, close to their highest level in five weeks. German paper demand is indeed supported by Berlin's reluctance to strengthen relief funds in the euro area.

The euro climbed to 1.3450 dollars more, despite the new Greek downgrade by S & P, the latter being widely expected by markets. The single currency earnings still waiting for an abundant liquidity from the ECB.

As for the yen, which has registered the day before a nine-month low against the dollar, it is taken in favor of large purchases of month-end from Japanese exporters. But the Japanese currency is poised to record on the month's decline most marked over two years and traders expect it remains under pressure.

Oil prices continued their decline after a sharp rise the previous week, but lingering fears surrounding the Iranian offer to limit gross losses. Brent crude is trading around $ 123, that of U.S. crude around $ 108.