Bloomberg South Africans awoke to find their nation in limbo after President Jacob Zuma’s refusal to obey his ruling African National Congress’s request to resign voluntarily prompted its top leadership to order his removal from office. The ANC’s National Executive Committee decided to “recall†Zuma, 75, during a 13-hour meeting that ended early Tuesday, according to five people familiar with ...
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Ukraine set to deport ex-Georgian president Saakashvili to Poland
Bloomberg Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian leader-turned Ukrainian opposition politician, lost his appeal in a Ukrainian court seeking protection and refugee status after his homeland sought extradition. Officials of Ukraine’s migration and border-security services told Saakashvili on Monday he was to be returned to Poland, where he stayed before his most recent arrival, Oleh Slobodyan, a spokesman for the border ...
Read More »White House: Trump supports abuse victims in defense of aide
Bloomberg The White House said on Monday that Donald Trump supports domestic violence victims, after the president was criticized for sympathetic public statements about a former aide who resigned last week following allegations that he abused two ex-wives. “The president and the entire administration take domestic violence very seriously and believe all should be investigated thoroughly,†Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee ...
Read More »Lotte’s China exit to stall
Bloomberg Lotte Group’s efforts to sell its China stores have stalled as buyers aren’t sure they will be able to run the outlets normally after government allegations of fire safety infractions, a company executive said. South Korea’s largest department store operator, Lotte Shopping Co., has taken a sales hit in China over the past year after the group provided land ...
Read More »HNA sells Hong Kong land for $2 billion
Bloomberg HNA Group Co. agreed to sell two plots of land in Hong Kong to the city’s second-richest man for HK$16 billion ($2 billion) as the cash-strapped Chinese conglomerate accelerates asset disposals to repay its mounting debt. The sites, purchased just over a year ago, were sold to billionaire Lee Shau Kee’s Henderson Land Development Co., according to a statement ...
Read More »Vietnam’s coffee exports may increase 9%
Bloomberg Coffee shipments from Vietnam, the world’s biggest robusta producer, will surge this year as farmers harvest a bigger crop, according to Industry and Trade Minister Tran Tuan Anh. Exports may total 1.55 million metric tons in 2018, Anh said in a written response to Bloomberg questions. Production is set to increase about 4.5 percent to 1.6 million tons in ...
Read More »Singapore home prices may rise 10 percent
Bloomberg Singapore housing prices may rise as much as 10 percent this year, following a pickup in home sales, the chief executive officer of Southeast Asia’s biggest developer said. “Transaction volume has gone up and usually that’s a precursor to some price increase,†Lim Ming Yan, the president and CEO of CapitaLand Ltd., said in an interview in Singapore. “A ...
Read More »Warburg boosts logistics bet with $200mn Vietnam JV
Bloomberg Warburg Pincus, the private equity firm that’s been betting on the growth of the Asian logistics sector, is forming a joint venture to develop industrial properties in Vietnam. The New York-based firm and Vietnam’s Investment & Industrial Development Corp., the state-owned firm known as Becamex IDC, are committing more than $200 million to the partnership, Warburg Pincus said in ...
Read More »Bullet trains transform world’s biggest migration
Bloomberg Millions of Chinese cram onto trains to make the annual pilgrimage home for the Lunar New Year holiday. It’s a crowded and often uncomfortable experience that is rapidly being transformed by the country’s push into the world of high-speed rail. China already has the globe’s longest bullet-train network, but it’s plowing 3.5 trillion yuan ($556 billion) into expanding its ...
Read More »Trump budget favours navy, missile defense, Boeing
Bloomberg US President Donald Trump proposed a $4.4 trillion federal budget for fiscal 2019, a plan Congress is expected to all but ignore that would slash entitlements and other domestic programs in favour of higher spending on the military and immigration enforcement. Trump’s $686 billion defense request for the coming fiscal year would propel the Navy towards a new goal ...
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