Uncategorized

Geneva / AFP Syria’s warring sides prepared on Sunday for a new round of peace talks after locking horns over the fate of President Bashar Al Assad, with the regime insisting his ouster was a “red line” while the opposition vowed to see him go—dead or alive. The UN-brokered indirect negotiations are due to begin in Geneva on Monday, the ...

Bloomberg A day after violent protests prompted Donald Trump to cancel a rally, the Republican presidential front-runner blamed the activist group MoveOn.Org and supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders for the chaos, while defending his own “harassed” supporters. “When they have organized, professionally staged wise-guys—we’ve got to fight back. We’ve got to fight back,” Trump said at an event in Dayton, ...

Seoul / AFP Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party braced for a backlash in key state polls on Sunday over the German leader’s liberal refugee policy, while the right-wing populist AfD prepared to scoop up the protest vote from angry voters. More than 12 million voters headed to the ballot box to elect three new regional parliaments for the southwestern states of ...

Bloomberg President Barack Obama has narrowed to three finalists a list of potential US Supreme Court nominees to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, all of them federal appeals judges, according to a person familiar with the matter. The candidates are Merrick Garland, Sri Srinivasan and Paul Watford, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the details ...

MEXICO / AP US-based Gulf Oil LP said it is entering Mexico’s gasoline retail market, becoming the first foreign company to do so under an energy overhaul that loosened more than seven decades of government monopoly in the sector. The company will open its first four gas stations in Mexico in June and July and aims to operate at least ...

New Delhi / Bloomberg Asia needs to take a leadership role in the global economy that reflects the continent’s growing clout, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said. Asian officials should keep monetary policy supportive, while using fiscal policy to boost growth and macro-prudential measures to protect financial stability, Lagarde said in a speech on Saturday in New Delhi. ...

Bloomberg U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is sticking to his guns. Tripped up by an economy proving weaker than forecast and with lower tax revenues as a result, Osborne is set to use his budget on March 16 to deliver even more austerity to meet a legally binding pledge of a fiscal surplus by the end of the ...

TEXAS / Bloomberg President Barack Obama said that smartphones — like the iPhone the FBI is trying to force Apple Inc. to help it hack — can’t be allowed to be “black boxes,” inaccessible to the government. The technology industry, he said, should work with the government instead of leaving the issue to Congress. “You cannot take an absolutist view ...

BLOOMBERG U.S. gas drillers battered by the lowest prices in 17 years have found another release valve for their output: Canada. Over the past five years, the shale boom that unlocked vast supplies of natural gas across North America has tripled pipeline shipments from the U.S. to Mexico, and spurred the first seaborne exports from the lower 48 states. Now, ...

BEIRUT / AP After five years of bloodshed — after a quarter of a million deaths, and the flight of millions of refugees — Syria has arrived at a critical juncture: A diplomatic framework is in place to end the carnage, a two-week-old partial ceasefire is holding, and peace talks are set to resume in coming days. “The indicators from ...