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Vodafone ( id="symbol_VOD.L_0"> VOD.L ) has agreed to buy Germany's largest cable operator Kabel Deutschland ( id="symbol_KD8Gn.DE KD8Gn.DE ) for 7.7 billion euros ($10 billion), betting on TV and fixed-line services in its biggest deal since 2007. _1"> Announcing its second major acquisition for a European fixed-line network in 12 months, Vodafone said it would pay 87 euros ($110) per share for the group to enable it to offer more competitive packages with TV, fixed-line and broadband services to its mobile customers. The world's second-largest mobile operator, following up its acquisition of Cable & Wireless Worldwide, is however paying a rich price for the German firm and its 8.5 million homes, which it considered buying before it went public in March 2010 at 22 euros per share. One trader who asked not to be named said the offer, Vodafone's biggest since a 2007 Indian acquisition, valued Kabel Deutschland at 12 times enterprise value a

They're a familiar sight around the world, whether in northern Japan or southern Argentina : a pair of men in dark suits, with nameplates, often riding bicycles as they go about their job preaching the Mormon religion. "Elders", Ryan McIlvain's debut novel, illuminates the lives of one such pair, American Elder McLeod and his Brazilian counterpart Elder Passos, through their frustrating daily round of knocking on doors and missionary work, the service that all adult Mormons must perform.   McIlvain, a former Mormon who went to Brazil on his mission, spoke about his book and basing fiction on his own life. Q: How did this book get going? A: It's something I know a lot about just by virtue of the fact that I was a Mormon missionary. More broadly, I thought it would be interesting to pay very close attention to the interior lives of two Mormon missionaries, people that we see almost exclusively from the outside ... They're so lonely, the pressures they fac

Chancellor Angela Merkel told President Vladimir Putin on Friday that German art seized by the Soviets in the wake of World War Two should be repatriated to Germany , a claim the Russian leader swiftly rejected. The tense exchange took place as they opened an exhibition at the Hermitage museum in St Petersburg during a trip by Merkel to Russia . The exhibition about the Bronze Age includes 600 items carried off by the Soviet Union as war reparations, according to the German government.   Merkel said it was an important step that the works were now going on public display for the first time. "It's our opinion that these exhibition pieces should be returned to Germany," she said. Putin replied that it was time to stop making repatriation claims against each other, otherwise Turkey could also demand the return of art from Germany. He said it didn't matter to the average citizen if art is displayed in Berlin, St Petersburg, Moscow or in Turkey. According to Berlin

U.S. municipal bond funds reported $2.22 billion of net outflows in the week ended June 19, up from outflows of $1.6 billion in the previous week, according to data released by Lipper on Thursday. The funds have had net outflows for four straight weeks, with the latest week the biggest since mid-December. For the four weeks outflows amounted to $5.4 billion. The four-week moving average remained negative at $1.36 billion, said Lipper, a unit of Thomson Reuters. Investors pulled out of high-yield funds for a fifth consecutive week, with net outflows of nearly $850 million, which was also the highest since the week of Dec. 19. In the week ended June 12, the funds reported outflows of $657 million.   Exchange-traded muni funds saw outflows of $54 million in the latest week, up from $7 million in the prior week, according to Lipper. Meanwhile, retail investors bought 1.8 muni bonds for every one they sold in the week ended June 19, up slightly from a ratio of 1.7 the week before, acc

Greece's coalition leaders failed to agree to on how to resume state television broadcasts during their third round of talks this week, deepening a nine-day impasse that has renewed fears of political instability in the country. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras had appeared close to a compromise earlier this week with his two leftist coalition partners over the sudden closure of the ERT state broadcaster, until the three-party talks collapsed again on Thursday. The leader of the smallest party in the coalition, Fotis Kouvelis of the Democratic Left, attacked Samaras for failing to comply with a court ruling ordering ERT back on air and rejecting his proposal for a reformed broadcaster.   "No common ground was reached at the political leaders' meeting with regards to the issue of ERT," Kouvelis said. Democratic Left party officials were due to meet on Friday morning to discuss their stance on the issue, officials said. The leader of the other junior coalition partn

Global equity markets, bond prices and commodities fell sharply on Thursday in a deep selloff, a day after the Federal Reserve said the U.S. economy was growing strongly enough for it to begin slowing its unprecedented stimulus. The Fed's bond-buying program, known as quantitative easing, has lifted both the U.S. economy and world financial markets by pushing interest rates to historic lows. But comments by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday, when he laid out a likely end to the program by next year if the economy strengthens further, brought a dose of finality to the markets. "The market has had its safety blanket taken away," said Chris Wyllie, chief investment officer at wealth manager Iveagh Ltd in London. Andrew Szczurowski, a portfolio manager at Eaton Vance in Boston, said he viewed the U.S. economy as a person lost at sea to whom Bernanke had thrown a life vest. "And now all of a sudden Bernanke is talking about poking a hole in the life vest, perha

Maine's Republican Governor, Paul LePage, touched off a firestorm of criticism on Thursday when he made a vulgar remark about a Democratic state senator. LePage said during a television interview that Senator Troy Jackson, with whom he has sparred recently over budget issues, "claims to be for the people, but he's the first one to give it to the people without providing Vaseline."   The remarks followed LePage's promise, at an Americans for Prosperity rally in Augusta, the state capital, to veto a $6.3 billion, two-year budget. Democrats criticized LePage's unwillingness to compromise on the bipartisan budget, which last week passed with two-thirds majorities in both the Maine House and Senate. The Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives immediately blasted the remark "LePage's language today crosses a new line - even for him," House Speaker Mark Eves said. "I would not want my children to hear these vulgar comments from the