March, 2017

• 16 March

  Japan’s power producers next to face China coal pain after steel

  

    Bloomberg First it was Japan’s steelmakers, now it’s the nation’s power producers that are set to pay for China’s coal policies. Japanese utilities may pay at least 29 percent more for annual supplies this year after China’s efforts in 2016 to trim overcapacity led to a more than doubling of spot prices, according to UBS Group AG and Morgan ...

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• 16 March

  China introduces services index to reflect changing economy

  

    Bloomberg China introduced a new indicator for the services sector to better track the vast range of activity from movies to restaurants that now account for more than half of the economy. The services output index rose 8.2 percent in January and February from a year earlier on growth in technology, transportation, and deliveries, the National Bureau of the ...

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• 16 March

  Dutch liberals defeat Wilders’ party in blow to populists

  

    Bloomberg Dutch voters turned out in force to back pro-European parties and help Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberals easily beat off an election challenge by the anti-Islam Freedom Party of Geert Wilders, drawing a line in the sand over the spread of populism. With votes counted in all but one of the country’s 388 municipalities, the Liberal Party had ...

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• 16 March

  Kofi Annan calls on Myanmar to allow access to troubled area

    YANGON/ AP A commission chaired by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended that the government allow aid workers and journalists free access to an area in western Myanmar where security forces are accused of major human rights abuses against the Muslim Rohingya minority. Annan spoke on Thursday in a video shown at a news conference in Yangon, where ...

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• 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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