June, 2016

• 13 June

  Eritrea accuses Ethiopia of launching border attack

    Nairobi / AFP Eritrea on Monday accused arch-rival Ethiopia of attacking its heavily militarised border, but officials in Addis Ababa said they had no knowledge of the reported fighting. Ethiopia on Sunday “unleashed an attack against Eritrea on the Tsorona Central Front,” Eritrea’s ministry of information said in a statement. Ethiopian government spokesman Getachew Redda said there were “no …

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• 13 June

  Iran’s Revolutionary Guards kill 5 Kurdish rebels

    Tehran / AFP Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have killed five Kurdish rebels near the country’s northwestern border with Iraq, an official statement said on Monday. “A team of five from the PJAK terrorist splinter group… has been identified and destroyed in the Sardasht region” on the Iraqi border, a Guards statement said on its official website. It said the …

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• 13 June

  ‘Depressed’ Pistorius in court for murder sentencing

  

    Pretoria / AFP Oscar Pistorius is suffering from depression, a South African court heard on Monday, as the Paralympic athlete faced a return to jail for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp three years ago. The double-amputee killed Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, in the early hours of Valentine’s Day in 2013, saying he mistook her for an intruder …

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• 13 June

  Israel reopens Palestinian crossings after attack

    Jerusalem / AFP Israel has reopened Palestinian crossing points from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip following a three-day closure put in place after last week’s deadly Tel Aviv shooting, the army said on Monday. Crossings were reopened overnight as planned, an army spokeswoman said, though “security checks are ongoing” in Yatta, the West Bank village where the …

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• 13 June

  Chinese harassed us during flag stunt , say Philippine protesters

  

    Manila / AFP Filipino protesters said on Monday that Chinese coastguard ships blocked and sprayed them with water as they sailed to a disputed South China Sea shoal to plant a Philippine flag for independence day. China claims most of the strategic and resources-rich sea and has controlled Scarborough Shoal, just 230 kilometres (145 miles) off the main Philippine …

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• 13 June

  Brexit risk jolts markets as stocks slide with pound; yen climbs

  

    BLOOMBERG Growing anxiety over the prospect of the U.K. exiting the European Union dominated financial markets, sending global stocks down for a third day and the British pound to an eight-week low while boosting demand for havens such as the yen and gold. In Europe, equities headed for the lowest close since February and the pound weakened against most …

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• 13 June

  Rising oil prices cheer shale producers, dissuade investors

  

    Bloomberg The oil market just hit a yellow light. Crude’s advance of more than 90 percent from a 12-year low earlier this year has U.S. shale producers starting to return to their drilling rigs, threatening to slow further gains. “The $50-to-$60 a barrel area is the sweet spot,” said Mark Watkins, the Park City, Utah-based regional investment manager for …

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• 13 June

  Silicon Valley’s audacious plan to create a new stock exchange

    Bloomberg Five years ago, when Eric Ries was working on the book that would become his best-selling entrepreneurship manifesto “The Lean Startup,” he floated a provocative idea in the epilogue: Someone should build a new, “long-term” stock exchange. Its reforms, he wrote, would amend the frantic quarterly cycle to encourage investors and companies to make better decisions for the …

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• 13 June

  Apple must vow India plants before stores get nod

  

    New Delhi / Bloomberg India is seeking a commitment from Apple Inc. to bring manufacturing facilities to the country before the government will approve the iPhone maker’s request to open its own retail stores, according to a senior government official with direct knowledge of the matter. The government may loosen existing policies that require local sourcing for companies that …

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• 13 June

  Malaysia’s first sharia-compliant airline grounded

  

    Kuala Lumpur / AFP Rayani Air, Malaysia’s first Islamic-compliant airline, has been shut down, regulators said on Monday, months after it was suspended from flying for breaching aviation regulations. The carrier launched only in December with Muslim flight crew wearing the hijab while non-Muslim members were forbidden from wearing revealing clothing. In-flight meals were completely halal and alcohol consumption banned. …

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