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Bloomberg Bank of Nova Scotia would consider acquisitions to further expand operations in Latin America, Chief Executive Officer Brian Porter said. Just don’t expect anything in Brazil or Argentina. “We’ve got a small business in Brazil and we’re fine with that, thank you,” Porter said on Tuesday in an interview on Bloomberg TV Canada. “And Argentina, we have no desire ...

Bloomberg Facebook Inc.’s international expansion has been challenged by application shutdowns, regulatory blocks and protests. On Tuesday, the Brazilian government tried another tactic: detaining an executive. Brazil’s federal police took an executive into custody for failing to cooperate with judicial orders related to information on the company’s website in an investigation of drug trafficking. A judge in Sergipe ordered the ...

Bloomberg The real gained along with emerging-market currencies worldwide as commodities advanced, offsetting concern that Brazil’s economy continues to worsen while an ever growing corruption scandal gets closer to former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The real rose 2.1 percent to 3.9341 per dollar in Sao Paulo. A Bloomberg gauge of 20 developing-nation currencies gained for a second day ...

BLOOMBERG It’s long been common practice for Americans to head north for bargains whenever the Canadian dollar falls meaningfully below the greenback. During the current slump, they’re doing so from the comfort of their homes by shopping online from small-time Canadian merchants. The Canadian dollar — the loonie — has fallen about 18 percent against its U.S. counterpart over the ...

BAGHDAD / AP Iraqi officials hailed on Wednesday the progress achieved by government troops on the second day of a military operation aimed at dislodging IS militants from a key area north of the capital, Baghdad. On Tuesday, Iraqi troops, backed by aerial support and paramilitary forces, launched a new push to retake a sprawling desert area outside the central ...

Irbid / AP Seven men killed in armed clashes with Jordanian special forces had ties to the IS extremist group and had planned attacks on military and civilian targets in the kingdom, the country’s intelligence service said on Wednesday. The deadly confrontations, sparked by an arrest raid, took place late Tuesday in the northern city of Irbid. The men killed ...

Beirut / AFP More than 1,700 civilians have been killed by Russian air strikes in Syria since Moscow’s air campaign began five months ago, a monitoring group said on Wednesday. “Since September 30, Russian air strikes have killed 4,408 people including 1,733 civilians,” the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The civilian toll included 429 children and 250 women. ...

Riyadh / AFP Gulf nations on Wednesday declared Lebanon’s Hezbollah a “terrorist” group, in the latest regional move against the Shiite organisation fighting in support of Syria’s regime. The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council “decided to consider the militias (of Hezbollah) a terrorist organisation”, GCC Secretary General Abdullatif Al Zayani said in a statement. The GCC targeted Hezbollah because of “hostile ...

Jalalabad / AFP Gunfire and an explosion echoed on Wednesday as militants attacked India’s consulate in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, killing three people in the latest in a string of assaults on Indian installations in the country. No group has so far claimed the brazen attack, which coincided with a NATO change-of-command ceremony that saw US army general ...

“The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” represents the new conventional wisdom for some journalists appraising the current state of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Rejected in Mexico due to domestic party politics, whipsawed in Sri Lanka by changes in government, obstructed by protests in Myanmar, scuppered by the U.S. Committee on ...