April, 2016

• 5 April

  China restricts trade with Pyongyang over nuclear tests

  BEIJING / AFP China has imposed restrictions on imports of North Korea coal and sales to the North of jet fuel under UN sanctions imposed in response to Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests. The sanctions announced on Tuesday allow some imports of North Korean coal, iron ore and other materials for civilian use. But they ban any trade connected to ...

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• 5 April

  Myanmar’s Suu Kyi meets China counterpart as FM debut

  

  Yangon / AFP Myanmar foreign minister Aung San Suu Kyi met her Chinese counterpart in Naypyidaw on Tuesday, an official said, as relations with Beijing take centre stage in the first diplomatic foray of her newly installed pro-democracy government. The Southeast Asian nation sees its giant neighbour—and largest trading partner—as its biggest foreign policy preoccupation with border wars and controversial ...

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• 5 April

  Zuma faces impeachment move

  

  Cape Town / AFP South African President Jacob Zuma faced an impeachment attempt in parliament on Tuesday after the country’s top court ruled that he had violated the constitution over spending on his private residence. Zuma will almost certainly survive the impeachment vote, which requires a two-thirds majority, as his ruling African National Congress holds an overwhelming number of seats. ...

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• 5 April

  Ukraine pilot’s 22-year jail term begins in Russia

  

  Moscow / AFP Nadiya Savchenko’s 22-year sentence formally began on Tuesday with the Ukrainian pilot to be sent to prison camp in the next 10 days unless Kiev secures a swap deal with Moscow. The 34-year-old military pilot was convicted on March 22 over the killing of two Russian journalists in east Ukraine, a charge she denies. “The court did ...

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• 5 April

  India’s chance at a new beginning with democratic Myanmar

  

  Even as democracy continues to flounder in neighboring Thailand, Myanmar registered a monumental event last week, when it swore in its first democratically elected civilian president in over five decades. To be sure, this isn’t the end of the struggle for democracy in Myanmar. The country’s laws still reserve key subjects of governance – including home, defense, and border affairs ...

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• 5 April

  Old people power the on-demand economy

  

  Much ink and many pixels have been spilled over the past few years about the rise of the gig economy, sharing economy, on-demand economy, 1099 economy, freelancer economy or whatever you prefer to call it. Some of the claims about its growth have been overstated, and I’ve written several columns trying to debunk them, or at least put them in ...

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• 5 April

  India’s central bank cuts key interest rate to five-year low

  

  New Delhi / AFP India’s central bank on Tuesday cut its key interest rate to a five-year low of 6.5 percent citing a dip in inflation, and signalled there could be further rate cuts to come. In a widely expected move, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it would lower the benchmark repo rate, the level at which it ...

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• 5 April

  Europe’s central banks begin boosting QE price transparency

  

  Bloomberg France is planning to join the Netherlands in taking steps toward greater transparency in the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) 80 billion euros-a-month ($91 billion) quantitative-easing (QE) programme, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plans. In the first disclosure of its kind in 13 months of QE, the Dutch Central Bank has listed price and demand figures ...

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• 5 April

  China bank regulator says lenders should tighten overseas risk control

  

  Shanghai / Reuters China’s banking regulator said on Tuesday that lenders should tighten risk controls in their overseas branches, after some of the country’s top banks have come under foreign scrutiny for alleged compliance failings. Banks should clarify the responsibilities of staff in overseas branches, strengthen judgment of risk and make sure adequate checks are made on clients, the China ...

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• 5 April

  Oman’s Bank Muscat gets regulatory approvals to open office in Iran

  Reuters Bank Muscat has received all regulatory approvals to open a representative office in Iran, Oman’s largest lender said in a bourse filing on Tuesday. “The bank is in the process of registering the representative office and expects it to open later in 2016,” Bank Muscat said. On February 25, the bank said it planned to open an office in ...

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