February, 2017

• 25 February

  Health insurers to meet Trump on Obamacare plans

  

    Bloomberg Top US health insurance executives will meet on Monday with President Donald Trump, according to people familiar with plans for the session, a sign of the White House’s deepening involvement in efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare. Attendees will include chief executives of some of the biggest US health insurers, like UnitedHealth Group Inc., Aetna Inc., Cigna Corp., ...

  Read More »
• 25 February

  Pfizer summoned in DOJ probe of drugmaker charity connections

    Bloomberg Pfizer Inc. said that it received two subpoenas from the US Attorney’s office in Massachusetts related to charities that help Medicare patients afford co-payments for drugs, the latest company to disclose involvement in the probe. The New York-based drugmaker said in a securities filing that it received subpoenas on December 2015 and on July 2016 requesting documents related ...

  Read More »
• 25 February

  Canadian inflation surges to 2.1% in January on gas prices

  

    Bloomberg Canadian consumer prices surged in January on the back of rising gasoline prices and new carbon levies, bringing inflation to the highest in more than two years. The consumer price index advanced 2.1 percent from a year earlier, Statistics Canada reported Friday from Ottawa, up from 1.5 percent in December. Economists had estimated a gain of 1.6 percent, ...

  Read More »
• 25 February

  32 killed as twin attacks hit Syrian security buildings

  

    BEIRUT / AP Twin attacks on two Syrian security offices in the central city of Homs Saturday killed at least 32 people, including a senior security official who heads the feared Military Intelligence services, state media and officials reported. An al-Qaida-linked insurgent coalition known as the Levant Liberation Committee claimed responsibility for the attacks, which also left another high-ranking ...

  Read More »
• 25 February

  Iraqi forces facing stiff resistance in western Mosul

    SOUTH OF MOSUL / AP Iraqi forces pushed deeper into western Mosul on Saturday amid stiff resistance from entrenched IS fighters, a commander on the scene said. Special forces Lt. Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi said that his troops are “moving very slowly” and that IS fighters are responding with car bombs, snipers and dozens of armed drones. Hundreds of civilian ...

  Read More »
• 25 February

  PM launches ‘yes’ campaign over Erdogan powers

    ANKARA / AP Turkey’s prime minister has officially launched his ruling party’s campaign for a “yes” vote in a referendum on ushering a presidential system, which critics fear will concentrate too many powers in the hands of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Binali Yildirim formally got campaigning going on Saturday telling supporters in a sports arena that the proposed new ...

  Read More »
• 25 February

  Merkel formally nominated for German election run

    BERLIN / AP Angela Merkel’s conservatives have formally nominated the German chancellor as her party’s top candidate for the September parliamentary election in the region where she has her political base. The dpa news agency reported that Merkel won the support of 95 percent of delegates at a convention of the Christian Democrats’ branch in northeastern Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state ...

  Read More »
• 25 February

  Pence Says US ‘assessing’ move of American embassy in Israel

  

    Bloomberg Vice President Mike Pence told an influential group of Jewish Republicans gathered in Las Vegas that the US is “assessing” whether to move the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as he sought to assure a key constituency and political fundraising powerhouse of the administration’s commitment to their causes. “The president I know will be ...

  Read More »
• 25 February

  Malaysia warns N Korea to cooperate with investigation

  

    KUALA LUMPUR / AP Malaysian police said on Saturday that they would issue an arrest warrant for a North Korean diplomat if he refuses to cooperate with the investigation into the deadly attack on North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un’s exiled half brother. The investigation has unleashed a serious diplomatic fight between Malaysia and North Korea, a prime suspect in ...

  Read More »
• 25 February

  Filipinos mark revolt by condemning killings

    MANILA / AP Hundreds of left-wing and pro-democracy activists on Saturday marked the anniversary of the 1986 revolt that ousted Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos to warn about what they say are the incumbent president’s dictatorial tendencies and condemn his decision to allow Marcos to be buried in a heroes’ cemetery. More than 1,000 activists from different groups gathered at the ...

  Read More »