April, 2018

• 14 April

  Slovenia to hold early election on June 3

  

  LJUBLJANA / Reuters Slovenia will hold an early general election on June 3, President Borut Pahor announced on Saturday, a month after centre-left Prime Minister Miro Cerar resigned over a legal obstacle to a government investment project. “On this day I dismiss the parliament and determine June 3 as the date of early parliamentary election,” Pahor told a news conference. ...

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• 14 April

  Swedish far-right party fails to impress opposition alliance

  

  Bloomberg The anti-immigration Sweden Democrats may have shunned some of its more extreme members, but the party with neo-Nazi roots is still far from being welcomed by the establishment. While SD is poised to become a kingmaker in September’s election, potentially winning close to 20 percent, interviews with the center-right opposition leaders revealed the group will still need to make ...

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• 14 April

  Pakistan ex-PM Sharif barred from politics for life

  

  Bloomberg Pakistan’s Supreme Court issued a lifetime ban on politicians holding office after legal disqualification — a ruling that will bar former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from ever holding an elected position following a corruption probe against the ex-premier last year. The top court’s 5-member panel made the judgment on Friday after its July decision that ousted Sharif didn’t disclose ...

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• 14 April

  Trump pardons Cheney aide Scooter Libby for perjury

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump pardoned I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby for lying to investigators probing the leak of a CIA officer identity, offering official forgiveness to a conservative figure whom supporters have argued was unfairly swept up in a politically charged special counsel’s investigation. “I don’t know Mr. Libby,” Trump said in a statement, “but for years I have heard that ...

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• 14 April

  Telecom giants begin jostling for connected-car riches

  

  Bloomberg The phone companies spent decades extending internet access across the US, first to homes and then to mobile devices, only to be stuck collecting relatively small service fees while Google and Amazon built lucrative online empires. Now that a surge of American cars are getting their own internet connections, Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. don’t want to be ...

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• 14 April

  Google releases new Africa app to help users beat slow internet

  

  Bloomberg Google is releasing an app in Africa that will help internet users overcome obstacles such as the lack of high-speed connectivity and the cost of data on the continent. The release of Google Go is the US technology giant’s latest attempt to extend its reach into emerging markets such as sub-Saharan Africa, where Facebook Inc. is also making inroads. ...

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• 14 April

  Spotify plans new version of free music service

  

  Bloomberg Spotify Technology SA is developing a new version of its free music service, the first big product change since the streaming company went public last week, according to people familiar with the matter. The company is tweaking the free service to make it easier to use, especially for customers on mobile phones, said the people, who asked not to ...

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• 14 April

  Instagram to allow users download their data

  Reuters Facebook Inc’s Instagram will soon allow its users to download a copy of all the content they have uploaded on the photo-sharing platform, a spokesman said. The disclosure comes amid global concerns about the privacy of users’ information on social media platforms and the amount of user data that companies keep. While Facebook has allowed its users to download ...

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• 14 April

  OPEC near ‘mission accomplished’ as global oil glut vanishes, says IEA

  

  Bloomberg OPEC is on the verge of “mission accomplished” in its quest to clear the global oil glut that caused the worst industry downturn in a generation, the International Energy Agency said. Less than 10 percent of the surplus in oil inventories remains, as OPEC and its partners have cut production by even more than they intended while world demand ...

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• 14 April

  Italy’s Eni defies sceptics, plans raising stake in nuclear fusion project

  

  MILAN / Reuters Italian energy group Eni is considering stepping up its investment in nuclear fusion, potentially doubling down on a technology considered so uncertain that Eni remains the only global oil company prepared to place a bet on it. Eni and bigger rivals such as Shell and BP have been looking at moving into renewable energy as climate change, ...

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