RIYADH / REUTERS Saudi Arabia aims to start talks with Washington within weeks on an agreement to allow US firms to participate in its nascent civilian nuclear energy programme, with the first tender expected in 2018, the kingdom’s energy minister said. Saudi Arabia is interested in reaching a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with Washington, and Riyadh has invited US firms …

Bloomberg Saudi Aramco is looking for natural gas assets from Russia to East Africa and the US as the kingdom’s state-owned energy giant hunts for ways to meet soaring domestic demand. The comments by Khalid Al-Falih, who’s both Aramco chairman and Saudi energy minister, are a tacit admission Aramco has failed to find enough domestic gas reserves despite years of …

Bloomberg Pemex’s crude menu has just gotten simpler. If it’s the traditional, heavier Maya you’re after, step right up, but traders with a palate for lighter, sweeter crudes will have to look elsewhere. Isthmus exports fell almost 16 percent in November from the previous month while Pemex stopped sending Olmeca, Mexico’s light- est crude, for a third consecutive month, according …

Bloomberg North Korea rejected tighter United Nations sanctions aimed at curbing its nuclear expansion, describing the move as an “act of war” and vowing to avenge US sympathisers who approved it. The US “must abandon its hostile policy” towards North Korea, “learn to co-exist” and “wake up from its pipe-dream of our country giving up nuclear weapons,” the Korean Central …

Bloomberg Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic probably won’t seek a second term, as he intends to complete the work needed to lead his country into the European Union when his mandate ends in 2022. Vucic, who as the leader of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party is the Balkan state’s most powerful politician, said in an interview that he’d announce proposals to …

Bloomberg Poland defied the European Union’s unprecedented call for member states to punish it for failing to uphold the bloc’s values, signing into law a judicial overhaul that puts the country at risk of economic sanctions and losing its voting rights. President Andrzej Duda announced the decision, hours after the European Commission said the government in Warsaw posed a threat …

Bloomberg Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski survived a pell-mell impeachment effort over allegations that he lied about dealings with Brazilian construction company Odebrecht SA, which is at the center of the biggest corruption scandal in Latin America’s history. After a congressional session that lasted more than 13 hours, lawmakers in the opposition-dominated chamber fell short of the two-thirds majority needed …

Bloomberg Thousands of Israelis demonstrated against government corruption as police move to wrap up an investigation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on suspicions of bribery. In addition to the weekly march in central Tel Aviv by liberal opponents of the government, which police said drew about 5,000 people, about 500 conservatives normally allied with Netanyahu held a parallel protest in …

It’s possible that more than half of the US’s trade deficit is a mirage — an artifact of corporate shenanigans designed to avoid taxes. Official statistics say that the US trade deficit is about 3 percent of gross domestic product — smaller than in the 2000s, but still historically large. But a recent Goldman Sachs note about tax reform makes …

For all the hype about the decline of the West, it still largely controls whether emerging markets thrive or suffer. The broad global pick-up in growth this year propelled emerging markets toward the biggest gains in stocks and currencies in almost a decade. China’s debt binge did add ballast to the global expansion, and the country’s neighbors are vulnerable to …