March, 2017

• 16 March

  Netanyahu vows new settlement ahead of meeting with US envoy

    JERUSALEM / AP Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is vowing to keep his promise to build Israel’s first new West Bank settlement in two decades — even as Netanyahu and President Trump’s envoy continue discussions on future settlement building. Netanyahu will meet with Trump envoy Jason Greenblatt on Thursday as part of efforts to reach an “agreed-upon policy” on ...

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• 16 March

  Britain’s Brexit bill receives royal assent, becomes law

    LONDON / AP A bill authorizing Britain to start its exit from the European Union received royal assent and became law on Thursday, empowering Prime Minister Theresa May to begin divorce proceedings from the bloc. House of Commons Speaker John Bercow announced that the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act has received the assent of Queen Elizabeth II. The ...

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• 16 March

  Trump suffers second defeat as revised travel ban on hold

  

    GREENBELT / AP President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban has suffered another federal court setback after a judge in Maryland rejected a revised measure that bans travel targeting six predominantly Muslim countries. Judge Theodore Chuang ruled on Thursday in a case brought near the nation’s capital by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups representing immigrants, refugees and ...

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• 16 March

  Australia calls for enforceable South China Sea pact soon

  

    MANILA / AP Australia urged Southeast Asian nations and China to conclude a legally binding code of conduct in the South China Sea as soon as possible, voicing concern on Thursday about the scale of reclamation and construction by China in the disputed territory. Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, speaking in Manila, urged the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian ...

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• 16 March

  Taiwan military to upgrade fighters, seek stealth capability

    TAIPEI / AP Taiwan is planning to upgrade its F-16 fighter jets and will seek cutting-edge stealth aircraft from the United States in the face of a growing military threat from rival China, the Defense Ministry said on Thursday. The announcement follows the release of this year’s $11.4 billion defense budget, an increase of less than 1 percent from ...

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• 16 March

  Stocks, dollar slip on Fed outlook

  

    Bloomberg US stocks fell with the dollar and Treasuries as investors speculated the Federal Reserve will err in favour of more accommodation as it assesses the path for future rate hikes. Crude slipped below $49 a barrel. The S&P 500 Index failed to add to its best advance in two weeks, with health-care shares leading declines. Emerging-market equities surged ...

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• 16 March

  Mideast markets rise

    Bloomberg Middle Eastern stock markets rose on Thursday, led by Egypt, after the US Federal Reserve hiked interest rates as expected but signalled no acceleration in the pace of monetary tightening. But Gulf bourses lagged emerging markets in general because of concern that low oil prices and government austerity measures will continue to weigh on corporate earnings. Among planned ...

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• 16 March

  China, Saudi ink $65bn deals as king visits

  

    Reuters Saudi Arabia’s King Salman oversaw the signing of deals worth potentially $65 billion on the first day of a visit to Beijing on Thursday, as the world’s largest oil exporter looks to cement ties with the world’s second-largest economy. King Salman, who has overseen the launch of an ambitious economic reform plan since his accession two years ago, ...

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• 16 March

  Wall Street keeps faith in oil recovery even as prices drop

  

    Bloomberg Prices have sunk, stockpiles ballooned and doubts about OPEC’s effectiveness grown, yet Wall Street hasn’t lost faith in oil’s recovery. Crude plunged below $50 a barrel in New York last week on signs that OPEC’s production cuts aren’t clearing a global glut quickly enough, and that US shale drillers are ready to fill in any shortfall. Nonetheless, Goldman ...

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• 16 March

  California utilities face competition from clean-power providers

  

    Bloomberg California utilities are losing business to local power authorities that were created to deliver clean power to residents. Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the state’s biggest utility, expects to lose about 7.3 percent of its electric load this year, and potentially 21 percent by 2020, to these so-called community choice aggregators, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The shift ...

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