April, 2016

• 19 April

  China starts gold fixing to grow global market sway

  

    Beijing / Bloomberg China, the world’s biggest producer and consumer of gold, started a twice-daily price fixing on Tuesday in an attempt to establish a regional benchmark and bolster its influence in the global market. The Shanghai Gold Exchange set the price at 256.92 yuan a gram ($1,233.85 an ounce) at the 10:30 a.m. session after members of the ...

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• 19 April

  Australia’s biggest cattle firm to sell up for $370.7 million

  

    Sydney / AFP Australian cattle firm S. Kidman and Co. on Tuesday said a Chinese-led consortium was the preferred buyer of most of its stations, with an offer worth US$288.8 million. Kidman, Australia’s biggest private landowner, has attracted keen interest from Chinese firms wanting to secure the sprawling pastoral empire. It said a consortium of Dakang Australia Holdings Pty. ...

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• 19 April

  Japanese Farmers’ Bank to buy $2.9bn of Cerberus deal

  

      Tokyo / Bloomberg Japan’s Norinchukin Bank bought more than $2.9 billion of UK mortgage-backed bonds sold by Cerberus Capital Management, according to people familiar with the matter. The cooperative lender, which serves as the central financial institution for Japanese farmers and fisherman, acquired senior-ranking notes in a 6.1 billion pound deal that priced earlier this month, said the ...

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• 19 April

  Telstra, Ping Autohome $1.6 billion deal on track despite rival bid

    Melbourne / Bloomberg Telstra Corp. and a Ping An Insurance Group Co. unit said their agreement over the sale of a $1.6 billion stake in China’s Autohome Inc. is binding, indicating the transaction will go ahead despite the emergence of a higher management buyout proposal. Ping An Trust & Investment Co., which agreed to buy a 48 percent stake ...

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• 19 April

  India has long list of needs and goals, says Jaitley

  

    NEW YORK / AP India’s finance minister says his country’s needs include everything from more housing and factories to becoming more business friendly but that it’s also committed to protecting the climate. Arun Jaitley spoke about India’s future at the Asia Society in New York. Jaitley says there’s widespread support for reform in India. He says India’s states will ...

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• 19 April

  Sony climbs as quake impacts mobile sensors

    Tokyo / Bloomberg Sony Corp. shares climbed the most in two months in Tokyo trading as concerns abated that a quake at the southern Japanese island of Kyushu will cause a major disruption in the supply of image sensors for mobile phones. The shares rose 6.5 percent to 2,914 yen on Tuesday, the biggest jump since Feb. 15. The ...

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• 19 April

  Natural disasters since 1900 ‘have cost US$7trn’

  

    Vienna / AFP Natural disasters have caused more than $7 trillion (6.2 trillion euros) in economic damage worldwide since 1900, with floods and storms accounting for nearly 60 percent of the total, researchers said. The death toll from such natural calamities — which also include earthquakes, volcanoes, droughts, heatwaves and wildfires — topped eight million from 1900 to 2015, ...

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• 19 April

  30 dead, hundreds wounded as truck bomb rattles Kabul

  

    Kabul / AFP At least 30 people were killed and hundreds wounded when a Taliban truck bomb tore through central Kabul on Tuesday, triggering a fierce firefight, a week after the insurgents launched their annual spring offensive. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a densely crowded neighbourhood, which sent clouds of acrid smoke billowing into the sky ...

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• 19 April

  5 Dead in rocket fire on Turkey town

    Istanbul / AFP The death toll from rocket strikes on a Turkish town from an area in Syria controlled by extremists rose to five on Tuesday after another Syrian child died in hospital, reports said. Four Syrian children are now confirmed to have been killed in the strikes by Katyusha-type rockets Monday afternoon on the town of Kilis on ...

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• 19 April

  Iraq’s Mosul will eventually be retaken from IS: Obama

    Washington / AFP US President Barack Obama said he expects Iraq’s second city Mosul to be retaken from the IS group “eventually”. Obama’s comments in an interview with CBS News came on the same day that Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Washington would send Apache attack helicopters and more troops to Iraq. “As we see the Iraqis willing to ...

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