June, 2016

• 11 June

  Landmark Saudi bond takes a step forward

  

    Reuters Bankers are expecting to be notified soon about the line up to lead Saudi Arabia’s debut international bond transaction after pitches took place in Riyadh. The Kingdom is likely to hire from the list of banks that underwrote a US$10bn loan in May, which was coordinated by JP Morgan, HSBC and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, though a number of ...

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• 11 June

  Iran snaps up its first sugar purchases

  Reuters Importers in Iran have bought at least 250,000 tonnes of Brazilian raw sugar in the first purchases since international sanctions were lifted on Tehran in January, trade sources said. One source said the purchases were between 250,000 and 300,000 tonnes for May to June shipment, while another said the quantity was probably bigger than that. “Buyers in Iran have ...

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• 11 June

  Oil and gas sector in Gulf region ‘prone to cyber attacks’

  

    Manama / Tribune news service Old and outdated systems running the oil and gas sector in the Gulf are vulnerable to cyber attacks, according to a security expert. Hackers keep exploiting this weakness which is reflected in the sharp rise in the number of attempts reported by a global cyber security watchdog monitoring the situation. “The underlying technology that ...

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• 11 June

  More support for Afghan troops part of latest Obama strategy

  

    WASHINGTON / AP Far from ending the two wars he inherited from the Bush administration, Barack Obama is wrestling with an expanded set of conflicts in the final months of his presidency, from Iraq and Afghanistan to Libya and Syria, with no end in sight. In Afghanistan, where a Taliban resurgence has upset Washington’s “exit strategy,” Obama is giving the ...

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• 11 June

  Nobel laureates urge voters to remain in EU

    LONDON / AFP A group of 13 Nobel laureates have urged UK voters to remain in the European Union, warning that Britain will lose funding, global influence and access to expertise if the nation votes to leave the 28-nation bloc. The scientists wrote an open letter to the Daily Telegraph newspaper, expressing concern that those arguing that Britain should ...

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• 11 June

  Rousseff called as witness in Brazil corruption case

    Rio de Janeiro / AFP President Dilma Rousseff, suspended from office pending her impeachment trial, has been called as a defense witness for a key figure in the Petrobras corruption scandal, Brazilian media reported. The case reportedly involves Marcelo Odebrecht, the former head of a family-owned construction company who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role ...

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• 11 June

  Hooligans, strikes spook Euro 2016

  

    Paris / AFP After a triumphant start to Euro 2016, France braced for more strike disruptions and hooligan violence as England face Russia in a high-risk match on Saturday. A tense France was finally able to party after winning the opening match against Romania and avoiding major hiccups as ongoing industrial unrest failed to disrupt transport to the Stade de ...

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• 11 June

  Gunmen kill 11 from same family in Mexico

    Puebla / AFP Gunmen marched into a remote mountain village in Mexico and killed 11 members of the same family, including two children, apparently over “personal conflicts,” authorities said. Five women, four men and two girls were killed in the pre-dawn attack in El Mirador, a community in central Puebla state, near Oaxaca. Two other girls were wounded in ...

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• 11 June

  Venezuela lets Maduro recall advance, with threats

  

    Caracas / AFP Facing mounting pressure from food shortages, looting and increasingly violent protests, Venezuelan authorities announced the next stage of a recall referendum against embattled President Nicolas Maduro. But Maduro’s camp said it would go to the Supreme Court to contest the process, accusing the opposition of fraud while gathering the signatures needed to call a referendum. The wranglings ...

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• 11 June

  Duterte not for summary killings after Ban criticism

    Manila / AFP Philippine president-elect Rodrigo Duterte does not endorse extrajudicial killings, his spokesman said on Saturday after scathing criticism from the UN chief over his plans for thousands of people to die in an unprecedented war on crime. Duterte won last month’s elections by a landslide largely due to an explosive law-and-order platform in which he pledged to ...

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