News

  Sydney / AFP A multi-billion-dollar deal to break up Australian logistics giant Asciano between local and international suitors hit a hurdle on Thursday after a key corporate regulator raised concerns about reduced competition at ports. The Aus$9.05 billion (US$6.5 billion) takeover, announced in March, would see the rail, freight and ports operator’s assets split between a consortium led by ...

  Hong Kong / AP Chinese technology giant Lenovo said on Thursday it posted a net loss last year, as its smartphones struggle to keep apace with Apple and Android rivals and as the market for personal computers fizzles. The Beijing-based company, which has traditionally manufactured computers but has been trying to broaden its smartphone business after scooping up Motorola ...

  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. ...

  Berlin / AFP Germany’s finance minister on Thursday voiced backing for the French government’s labour reforms that have sparked crippling strikes, saying France was capable of withstanding such social opposition. “France is obviously not unreformable,” Wolfgang Schaeuble told journalists, adding that President Francois Hollande “is right” to champion the reforms. He shrugged off the impact of the strikes that have ...

  Bloomberg Former Mayor of London Boris Johnson, a campaigner for Britain to leave the European Union in next month’s referendum, needs to be re-educated about the way the 28-nation bloc works, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Thursday at the Group of Seven summit in central Japan. Asked about Johnson’s comments linking the bloc to Adolf Hitler and ...

  Budapest / AFP Hungary’s central bank said on Thursday it was now ready to leave interest rates alone after cutting a key rate to a record level. The bank, the MNB, cut the benchmark rate to a fresh record low of 0.9 percent Tuesday, in what it says is now the end of its third interest rate easing cycle since ...

  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 ...

  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 ...

  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 ...