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Bloomberg While the world focuses on Russia’s oil-freeze talks with OPEC, there are discussions behind closed doors in the Kremlin that will have a much more significant impact on the nation’s energy industry. The petrodollars that underpin Russia’s national budget are evaporating. When crude prices were high, increasing revenue simply meant encouraging companies like Rosneft OJSC and Lukoil PJSC to ...

Bloomberg The pound advanced against most of its major peers after manufacturing activity in the U.K. expanded at a faster rate than expected in January and a rally in commodities and stocks boosted investor sentiment. Manufacturing production grew 0.7 percent against the 0.2 percent forecast in a survey of Bloomberg economists. Industrial production expanded by 0.3 percent, lower than forecast ...

Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is edging towards tax incentives for electric cars after months of bickering over how to boost sales of the vehicles in Europe’s biggest economy, according to a person familiar with the matter. With Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble opposed to plans by Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel to offer consumers a cash rebate of as much ...

Bloomberg Mario Draghi is having no success convincing stock investors that the European Central Bank has the firepower to reignite growth. While all economists in a Bloomberg survey expect the central bank to cut interest rates when policy makers meet on Thursday, and 73 percent project them to boost the amount of money put into the financial system through bond ...

Bloomberg Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest, hasn’t been part of a global selloff in stocks this quarter, according to its chief executive officer, Yngve Slyngstad. “We have not been participating in the selling, and we don’t foresee” that a change of strategy will be necessary, Slyngstad said at a presentation of the fund’s 2015 results on Wednesday. The ...

Washington / AFP Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton suffered a surprise loss to challenger Bernie Sanders in a major state primary, as billionaire Donald Trump notched a trio of easy victories in the Republican presidential nomination race. The former secretary of state slumped to defeat in the industrial rust belt state of Michigan, where Sanders snagged 49.9 percent of the vote ...

Sydney / AFP Washington is in talks to station its strike bombers in Australia, according to a US general, amid concern about China’s military expansion in the South China Sea. General Lori Robinson, commander of US Pacific Air Forces, said negotiations were under way to have American B-1 bombers and aerial tankers temporarily stationed in northern Australia. “We’re in the ...

Vilnius / AFP Five EU states have proposed sanctions against Russian officials responsible for the trial of hunger-striking Ukrainian military pilot Nadia Savchenko, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said Wednesday. Savchenko is on trial for alleged involvement in the death of two Russian state television journalists in a mortar attack that occurred two months after Ukraine’s pro-Moscow eastern revolt broke ...

Tehran / AFP Iran fired two more long-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday as it continued military tests in defiance of US sanctions and fresh warnings from Washington. Coming just weeks after the implementation of Iran’s historic nuclear deal with world powers, this week’s multiple missile tests were described by Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards as a show of force in the ...

Ankara / AFP Turkey’s foreign minister on Wednesday rejected the idea Ankara was “begging” the EU for money, after it dramatically doubled its demand for funding during crunch talks on Europe’s migrant crisis. The European Union and Turkey clinched a deal in November for three billion euros ($3.3 billion) in funds for refugees in return for Ankara’s cooperation in tackling ...