March, 2016

• 17 March

  Brazil CPFL Renovaveis to invest US$400 million in clean energy

  

  Bloomberg CPFL Energias Renovaveis SA, Brazil’s biggest renewable-energy generator, will invest 1.5 billion reais ($400 million) in renewable energy this year even as the country is hit by the worst economic crisis in decades. The Sao Paulo-based company will keep growing, organically and through acquisitions, Andre Dorf, CPFL Renovaveis’ president, said by phone from Sao Paulo. “We will invest in ...

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• 17 March

  Colombia joins record LatAm borrowing spree in Euros

  Bloomberg Colombia became the fourth Latin America country this year to take advantage of lower borrowing costs in Europe by selling debt denominated in the single currency, helping push euro bond sales from the region to a record €10.8 billion in the first quarter. Colombia sold €1.35 billion ($1.5 billion) of 10-year bonds to yield 3.875 percent. That’s down from ...

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• 17 March

  Chicago settling $390 million tab when city can least afford it

  

  Bloomberg Chicago taxpayers, already reeling from a financially strapped school system and mounting pension costs, are looking at a final tab of about $390 million to end ill-timed bets on interest rates. The city council on Wednesday authorized issuing as much as $200 million of bonds to help pay termination fees, estimated at $100 million, to unwind derivative contracts linked ...

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• 17 March

  EU leaders push for difficult migrant deal with Turkey

  

  Brussels / AFP European Union leaders began a difficult summit on Thursday to push for a crucial agreement with Turkey to curb the continent’s massive migration crisis despite threats by Cyprus to quash the deal. The proposed plan, which would make Turkey a central pillar of the divided EU’s response to the crisis, has been hailed by German Chancellor Angela ...

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• 17 March

  Egypt’s Sisi tells West to keep out of Libya

  Rome / AFP Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has warned Western powers Libya could spiral out of control if they try to intervene militarily in the conflict-wracked North African state. Speaking in a rare interview, the military-backed ruler of one of the region’s biggest powers said the West and its allies should instead concentrate on strengthening the army of ...

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• 17 March

  German institutions in Turkey closed for security reasons

  Ankara / AFP German diplomatic missions and a school in Turkey were closed on Thursday for security reasons, the German consulate in Istanbul said, less than a week after a suicide car bomb attack in the capital. The measure concerns the German embassy in Ankara as well as the consulate and German school in Istanbul, it said on its website. ...

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• 17 March

  UK lawmakers warn Obama not to intervene in EU debate

  LONDON / AP A handful of UK lawmakers have warned US President Barack Obama not to intervene in the debate about whether Britain should remain in the European Union. In an open letter on Thursday, five lawmakers and Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-EU UKIP party, argue that interfering in the debate would mark an “unfortunate milestone” in Obama’s presidency. ...

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• 17 March

  Obama moves with sanctions on N Korea

  

  Washington / AFP US President Barack Obama signed an order implementing UN-backed sanctions on North Korea after a nuclear test and missile launch this year, as Pyongyang promised reprisals. The White House said Obama had signed an executive order targeting the volatile hermit state’s energy, financial and shipping assets. The measures were agreed to at the United Nations in response ...

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• 17 March

  Radical Kurdish group close to PKK claims Ankara attack

  

  Ankara / AFP A radical Kurdish group with ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party on Thursday claimed responsibility for the suicide car bomb attack that killed 35 people in Ankara last weekend. The claim by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) came as Germany closed diplomatic missions and a school in Turkey Thursday over security concerns. In a statement on ...

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• 17 March

  Mozambique unrest turns key highway into ‘ghost road’

  

  Maputo / AFP Mozambique’s arterial north-south highway has earned the moniker of a “ghost road” with former rebels staging regular raids ahead of a threatened power grab in the country’s centre this month. “We registered eight attacks by Renamo gunmen last week, which caused a total of three deaths—including a three-year-old—and 23 injured,” police spokesman Inacio Dina told a news ...

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