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  Tokyo / AFP Japan passed a law regulating virtual currency, after the country found itself at the epicentre of a multi-million dollar embezzlement scandal following the spectacular collapse of the Tokyo-based MtGox Bitcoin exchange. Once one of the largest, most established exchanges for the cryptocurrency, MtGox collapsed in 2014 after a suspected theft worth nearly half a billion dollars, which ...

  Mumbai / Bloomberg Reliance Industries Ltd. and BP Plc are seeking to end their disputes with the Indian government over an offshore natural gas block, one requirement for the companies before they can take advantage of new pricing policies, according to people familiar with the development. The two explorers and a third partner, Canada’s Niko Resources Ltd., are preparing ...

  Bloomberg Some Electricite de France (EDF) workers joined strikes at oil refineries, cutting power output, as the government vowed not to back down revising a labour law and businesses warned of economic damage if the protests continued. “What are the alternatives – a withdrawal of the text? That’s impossible,” Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Thursday on RMC radio. ...

  Bloomberg The number of U.S. jobs in solar energy overtook those in oil and natural gas extraction for the first time last year, helping drive a global surge in employment in the clean-energy business as fossil-fuel companies faltered. Employment in the U.S. solar business grew 12 times faster than overall job creation, the International Renewable Energy Agency said in ...

  Dubai / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, on Wednesday opened the Burj Al Arab Terrace in the presence of Deputy Ruler of Dubai HH Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. A world-first in marine and off-site construction, the Burj ...

  Cairo / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi on Wednesday discussed bilateral relations and a number of regional and international issues of common interest. The talks took place at the Al Ittihadiya Presidential Palace where Al-Sisi ...

  New Delhi / Bloomberg India’s finance minister has ratified a decision that Apple Inc. must meet local sourcing rules to open its own stores, according to people familiar with the matter, dealing what may be a fatal blow to the iPhone maker’s effort to open retail outlets in the country. Minister Arun Jaitley decided to support the decision by ...

  Kuwait City / AFP The UN envoy said on Wednesday that Yemen’s warring parties were closer to agreement at peace talks in Kuwait as he headed to New York to brief the Security Council. “We are moving towards a general understanding that encompasses the expectations and visions of the parties,” Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a statement. “The discussions ...

  Los Angeles / AFP Protesters opposed to Donald Trump hurled rocks and bottles outside a rally he spoke at in New Mexico, the same day the bombastic billionaire won the Republican presidential primary in Washington state. The victory brings Trump, the last Republican standing in the 2016 US presidential race, one major step closer toward clinching his party’s nomination. ...

  Ise-Shima / AFP US President Barack Obama arrived in Japan on Wednesday for a Group of Seven summit, kicking off a historic visit that will also take him to the atomic-bombed city of Hiroshima. Obama was joining other leaders from the club of rich democracies for a gathering set to be dominated by the lacklustre state of the global ...