May, 2016

• 24 May

  Obama to Vietnam: Embrace human rights

  

    Hanoi / AFP US President Barack Obama told communist Vietnam on Tuesday that basic human rights would not jeopardise its stability, in an impassioned appeal for the one-party state to abandon authoritarianism. In a sweeping speech, which harked back to the bloody war that defined both nations but also looked to the future, Obama said that “upholding rights is …

  Read More »
• 24 May

  Maldives ex-president says granted UK refugee status

    London / AFP Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed said he has been granted refugee status in Britain, after being toppled from power and jailed in a “slide towards authoritarianism” that has forced him into exile. Nasheed, the country’s first democratically elected leader, was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment on controversial terrorism charges last year, but was allowed to travel …

  Read More »
• 24 May

  Corruption scandal throws Brazil’s interim government into disarray

  

  Brasília /AFP Acting Brazilian president Michel Temer’s government faced its first major crisis when a key minister stepped aside following a leaked recording in which he appears to discuss using Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment to derail a huge corruption probe. Planning Minister Romero Juca said in a hurried appearance before television cameras that he would step aside from Tuesday. Although he …

  Read More »
• 24 May

  Defeating IS means getting the politics right

  

    ANKARA A tour of the war zones in Iraq and Syria with the top American commander ends, appropriately enough, here in Turkey, the strongest power in the region and the place where the modern troubles began a hundred years ago with the collapse of the Ottoman empire. The abiding strategic fact about the current war against the IS is …

  Read More »
• 24 May

  Lifting of Vietnam arms ban a vital US move

    Rapprochement between Washington and Hanoi has moved an extra mile towards deeper engagement following the US decision to lift a decades-old ban on lethal arms sales to Vietnam 40 years after a the bitter US– Vietnamese war ended. Amid growing tension with China over a maritime dispute, the lifting of arms embargo is vital as it will allow Vietnam …

  Read More »
• 24 May

  US presidential race gets harder to predict

    Jonathan Bernstein With a bunch of new polls released over the weekend, speculation about how a general election race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump ends is beginning to matter. Just not in the way you would think, based on all the hype. We have three ways to predict what will happen, each with strengths and weaknesses. First, there …

  Read More »
• 24 May

  China poses a threat, just not the one Trump thinks

  Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have propelled their campaigns in part by appealing to globalization’s losers. The blue-collar American workers who have seen wages shrink and jobs disappear offshore have responded strongly to Trump’s China-bashing and Clinton’s newfound suspicions about free trade. Free Trade Feud The reality, though, is that neither candidate is going to bring manufacturing jobs back …

  Read More »
• 24 May

  Dollar advances with stocks as traders assess Fed; Pound jumps

  

    BLOOMBERG The dollar and stocks worldwide climbed, as investors awaited additional clues on the health of the global economy amid speculation higher interest rates in the U.S. may come as soon as July. The pound and oil gained. The U.S. currency touched its strongest level since March against the euro, while Australia’s dollar and South Korea’s won posted the …

  Read More »
• 24 May

  Hedge funds have $17.7bn at stake with insurers fleeing

  

    Bloomberg Insurers have had about enough of hedge funds. Stung by market-trailing returns, the industry in the U.S. is reversing course after more than doubling its hedge fund allocation over five years, to $17.7 billion as of Dec. 31, according to data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Just this month, American International Group Inc. said it submitted …

  Read More »
• 24 May

  Gulf mostly rises, quieter as Ramadan nears

  

    Dubai / Reuters Most Gulf stock markets rose on Tuesday but trading volumes were small as some investors stayed away because of the approach of the holy month of Ramadan and summer holidays, when activity tends to decrease in some bourses. Dubai’s index spent most of the day little changed but closed 1.0 percent higher after a surge in …

  Read More »