International News

Quito / Reuters Latin America’s main oil exporters called on both OPEC and non-OPEC nations to take action to stabilize oil markets, in a timid statement that did not explicitly back an output freeze or offer more aggressive proposals to shore up slumping prices. Delegations from Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela met in Quito in the run-up to a meeting ...

Bloomberg Canada’s dollar surged the most in three weeks after employers added more jobs in March than economists forecast, fanning speculation the Bank of Canada will refrain from cutting interest rates further. The loonie, as the Canadian dollar is known for the image of the aquatic bird on the C$1 coin, gained 1.2 percent to C$1.2988 per U.S. dollar at ...

Bloomberg A group that holds defaulted Argentine bonds is seeking to block the nation from going forward with more than $6.2 billion in settlements until it gets paid. The investors, including Trinity Investments Limited, Attestor Value Master Fund and Bybrook Capital Master Fund, said the nation is claiming it doesn’t have to pay them if they waited too long to ...

Bloomberg At the Plymouth Energy LLC plant in the heart of the U.S. corn belt — where home-grown fuel from grain was supposed to ease American dependence on foreign oil — every drop of ethanol goes to motorists in Brazil. Like many Midwest distillers, Plymouth’s Merrill, Iowa, plant was built a decade ago for a U.S. market that was importing ...

New Delhi / Bloomberg In the energy world, India is becoming the new China. The world’s second-most populous nation is increasingly becoming the center for oil demand growth as its economy expands by luring the type of manufacturing that China is trying to shun. And just like China a decade ago, India is trying to hedge its future energy needs ...

MUMBAI / Reuters Fairfax India Holdings said it has agreed to acquire a minority stake in privately held Indian petrochemical company Sanmar Chemicals via a roughly $300 million investment. The Sanmar investment is the latest in a string of bets Fairfax India and its sister concern Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd have made in the country within the last year. The ...

Sydney / Bloomberg Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull promised a prudent budget will be handed down next month in comments published by the Australian Associated Press. Turnbull was speaking less than a week after an opinion poll showed the government trailing the opposition for the first time since he deposed Tony Abbott seven months ago. This budget will not be about ...

Bandar Seri Begawan / DPA Brunei should take advantage of the region’s growing Islamic finance industry which is set to develop even further with the support of large Muslim populations in Southeast Asia. In an interview, Jeff Pirie, a senior partner from auditing firm Deloitte Singapore, said that Islamic finance is a good area where Brunei can build expertise outside ...

Taipei / DPA Taiwan is confident that it will be accepted into the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade bloc, a minister-designate who will be in charge of trade talks for the incoming government said yesterday. Shih Jun-ji, who has been named as a minister without portfolio of the incoming Cabinet, said the TPP membership will not be the only task ...

Tokyo / DPA Japan will launch a project under which the public and private sectors will join hands in selling dietary supplements and seasonings at low prices to developing countries in Africa and other areas, in a bid to improve nutrition in those countries, Japanese government sources said. The project is also expected to help Japanese food manufacturers start operations ...