April, 2016

• 24 April

  8 killed as hailstones, storms lash Myanmar

    Yangon / AFP Violent storms which saw hailstones the size of golf balls rain down across Myanmar have killed at least eight people in recent days, toppled pagodas and damaged thousands of buildings, officials said Sunday. The freak storms struck across five states on Friday and Saturday after weeks of heatwave temperatures regularly topping 40C (104F). “From what we know ...

  Read More »
• 24 April

  Death toll from Ecuador earthquake tops 650

    QUITO / AP The death toll from last week’s magnitude-7.8 earthquake that flattened towns along Ecuador’s coast has risen to 654 with another 58 people missing, the government said Saturday. The website of the secretariat for risk management said that 113 people had been rescued alive following the quake and more than 25,000 people remained in shelters. The death ...

  Read More »
• 24 April

  Serbia votes with PM calling for European future

  

    Belgrade / AFP Serbians began voting on Sunday in a general election that is likely to return pro-European Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic to power, but also give a voice in parliament to the pro-Russian far-right. While Vucic’s nominally conservative Serbian Progressive Party is projected to win about half of the votes, ultra-nationalists who want the Balkan country to deepen its ...

  Read More »
• 24 April

  Dutch journo arrested for criticising Erdogan

    Ankara / AFP A Dutch journalist was arrested early Sunday at her home in Turkey for tweets deemed critical of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to her Twitter account. “Police at the door. No joke,” wrote Ebru Umar, a well-known atheist and feminist journalist of Turkish origin. Umar recently wrote a piece critical of Erdogan for the Dutch ...

  Read More »
• 24 April

  Syria-born Greek mayor helps ‘lucky’ refugees

  

    Myrsini / AFP On a long beach framed by a golden Ionian Sea sunset, a group of Syrian boys shout for joy as they race across the sand, the horrors of war and exile they have witnessed briefly forgotten. As the sun finally sets, children make a beeline for a nearby square and mothers with prams step out for ...

  Read More »
• 24 April

  3 Ukrainian troops killed in new upsurge of fighting

    Kiev / AFP Three Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and six injured in a fresh upsurge of fighting between pro-Russian rebels and government forces in the country’s separatist east, the Kiev military said on Sunday. “As a result of hostilities, three Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and another six wounded over the past 24 hours”, military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk ...

  Read More »
• 24 April

  US regional banks brace for losses from energy loans

  

    Reuters The five US regional banks most exposed to the energy sector set aside millions of dollars more in the first quarter to cover potential losses from bad loans to the struggling oil industry. Overall, provisions for bad loans at Comerica Inc, Regions Financial Corp, KeyCorp, SunTrust Banks Inc and Fifth Third Bancorp more than doubled to $570 million ...

  Read More »
• 24 April

  Bank Dhofar offers terms of proposed merger to Bank Sohar

  

    Dubai / Reuters Oman’s Bank Dhofar, in talks with Bank Sohar on a possible merger, said on Sunday that it communicated the terms for a deal to its smaller rival after completing due diligence. Bank Dhofar, the sultanate’s second-largest lender by assets, said the financial and legal due diligence concluded on April 23, it said in a bourse statement. ...

  Read More »
• 24 April

  Citigroup, BofA should shrink to restructure: CLSA’s Mayo

  

    Bloomberg Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Comerica Inc. should move faster to restructure, including selling more assets, to catch up with competitors that are generating better returns, CLSA Ltd.’s Mike Mayo said. “All three of those banks have failed to create value for every year for the last eight years,” the analyst said. “So our question for ...

  Read More »
• 24 April

  Negative rates must to shun deflation

  

    Vienna / Reuters The euro zone needs negative interest rates to avoid sliding into deflation, European Central Bank (ECB) Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said in an Austrian newspaper interview, defending the policy against widespread criticism in Germany. The ECB kept the cost of borrowing for banks at zero on Thursday and will continue to charge them 0.4 percent ...

  Read More »