Anthony Peregrine sees the best of Nice, a magnet to the rich for centuries.

Funded by the European Union to the tune of $140 million, a deft bit of reinvention has turned France's drug and crime epicentre into the nation's Capital of Culture. Jenna Hand goes along for the ride.

Two-thirds of Europe's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community are still afraid to show their sexuality in public, and a quarter have been victims of physical or verbal attacks, a European Union report says.

"Who should bear which liabilities in the event of a banking collapse?" asks Bryan Gould. "The NZ proposal is an astonishing assault both on the property rights of depositors and on confidence in the banking system."

Hostility to the European Union is mainly an English thing, writes Gwynne Dyer, but that matters a lot in the United Kingdom, where 55 million of the kingdom's 65 million people live in England.

The Scots, the Catalans and the Basques tend to see themselves as victims, but nobody else does, writes Gwynne Dyer.

Clear cut results are thin on the ground but Prime Minister John Key said today he was happy with this year's Apec economic meeting in Vladivostok, Russia.

Most economists forecast the euro zone's central bank will tomorrow ease its key rate, already at a record low 1 per cent.