International News

Financial crisis may have caused 500,000 cancer deaths worldwide

  Paris / AFP The global financial crisis may have caused an additional 500,000 cancer deaths from 2008-2010, a new study said on Thursday, with patients locked out of treatment because of unemployment and healthcare cuts. The figures were extrapolated from an observed rise in cancer deaths for every percentage increase in unemployment, and every drop in public healthcare spending. “From ...

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Clean-energy jobs surpass oil drilling for first time in USA

  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 ...

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Coca-Cola turns to Mexico’s Arca as US bottling partner

  Bloomberg Coca-Cola Co. is bringing in a Mexican partner to handle bottling in parts of the U.S. as the beverage giant boosts its reliance on franchise operators to make and distribute its drinks. Arca Continental SAB, Latin America’s second-biggest Coca-Cola bottler, will help oversee territories in Texas and parts of Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arkansas, the companies said in ...

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No treasuries left for Wall Street dealers amid blowout auctions

  Bloomberg After two notes sales this week left primary dealers with the fewest Treasuries on record, investors will get another chance to load up on U.S. government debt on Thursday as seven-year securities are auctioned. The Treasury is scheduled to sell $28 billion of seven-year notes, the last of three fixed-rate aussctions this week totaling $88 billion. A gauge ...

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Job seekers line up in Rio street

  Rio De Janeiro, Brazil / AFP Thousands of Brazilians lined up on Wednesday at a Rio jobs fair, many of them so desperate to escape the country’s economic nosedive that they said they’d take anything on offer. In a symbol of Brazil’s precipitous slide into economic hardship, the almost stationary queue stretched right across a large central square. They were ...

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Apple needs ‘local source’ to open India stores

  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 ...

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Mitsubishi’s testing scandal charge cuts profit by 19%

  Tokyo / Bloomberg Mitsubishi Motors Corp. booked a 19.1 billion yen ($174 million) charge to reflect losses related to its fuel economy testing scandal, which reduced profit last fiscal year by 19 percent and prompted a shake-up in top management. The Japanese automaker said it earned 72.6 billion yen for the fiscal year ended in March, rather than the ...

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Toyota to expand Malaysia ops with $488 million plant

  KUALA LUMPUR / AP Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp. said on Wednesday that it will build a second factory in Malaysia as part of expansion to meet rising local demand. The new 2 billion ringgit ($488 million) plant will be built by Toyota and its local partner, UMW Corp. Toyota said that the plant, to be built in the ...

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Asia hotbed of IT piracy despite economic growth, says watchdog

  Singapore / AFP More than 60 percent of all computer software installed in the Asia-Pacific in 2015 was unlicensed, the worst of any region, despite growing economies and anti-piracy efforts, an industry watchdog said on Wednesday. The Software Alliance — which includes giants like Microsoft, Apple, Intel, Oracle and Adobe — said in a report that the unlicensed software ...

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Sime Darby posts $161.9mn profit

  KUALA LUMPUR / AFP Malaysia’s Sime Darby, the world’s biggest listed palm-oil producer, on Wednesday announced a 60 percent quarterly profit rise but warned of a tough outlook amid slow global demand and lower weather-reduced output. In a statement, Chief Executive Mohamad Bakke Salleh attributed the improved year-on-year earnings to sales of certain assets. The company had said in ...

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