Bloomberg Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders agreed that Michigan’s Republican governor should leave office over the Flint water crisis, but clashed over their stances on corporate bailouts and trade deals, with Clinton saying the American auto industry would have collapsed if Sanders had succeeded in blocking its rescue. Clinton said in Sunday’s CNN presidential debate that Michigan’s two senators ...
Read More »Colombia’s Ecopetrol reports losses of $1.2 bn in 2015
Bogota / AFP Colombian state-run oil concern Ecopetrol has reported losses of $1.23 billion (1.12 billion euros) in 2015, driven largely by low crude prices on the international market. Ecopetrol said in a statement that as a result of the losses it would not be handing out dividends to its shareholders. The company’s profits for 2015 “were affected principally by ...
Read More »Streets of Brazil key to Rousseff’s future
Bloomberg Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s struggle for political survival is spilling into the streets, after the latest chapter in a sweeping corruption probe escalated tension in Latin America’s largest country. Following police questioning on Friday of Rousseff’s predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva into allegations of bribes for favors, friends and foes of the government have started to mobilize in ...
Read More »USA -German yield gap widest since January on policy divergence
Bloomberg The extra yield U.S. 10-year Treasuries offer over their German peers widened to the most since January as U.S. economic data kept alive prospects of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates this year, which contrasts with the European Central Bank’s accommodative stance. Treasuries fell a second day on Monday, with the 10-year note yield rising to the highest level ...
Read More »Luxembourg duchess seeks return to Cuba, develop microfinance
Luxembourg / AFP She fled Cuba with her bourgeois family as revolution brewed, and later married into one of Europe’s royal dynasties. Today, as the Communist-ruled island emerges from long economic isolation, Luxembourg’s Grand Duchess Maria Teresa says she hopes to return home to pitch the cause of micro-credit to help the country’s poor. A Unesco goodwill ambassador, Maria Teresa, ...
Read More »Up with political ‘bosses’!
What we are seeing in the continuing march of Donald Trump toward the Republican presidential nomination is the power and significance of political entrepreneurship. If you want to become president (or senator or House member), you don’t need the permission of either party. You just announce, comply with the legal requirements for filing and launch your campaign. You are the ...
Read More »Rethinking air safety paramount
The recent air tragedies have drawn global attention to ensure air traffic safety. This new trend brings together the industry’s managers and policymakers closer to address the issue that worries travellers and is also a headache for the sector. Some air crashes were shrouded in mysteries and there are efforts to unearth what went wrong. One cause for concern is ...
Read More »Kim’s N-bluster may be for home, not abroad
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un did what he does best and made headlines around the world on Friday by ordering the military to be ready to use nuclear weapons at a moment’s notice. Following the UN Security Council’s vote Wednesday to hit Pyongyang with the strongest sanctions yet over its latest nuclear test and rocket launch, the dictator said the ...
Read More »China does away with trade targets
Many observers have already rolled their eyes as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, at the opening of China’s National People’s Congress this Saturday, announced a GDP growth target between 6.5 and 7 percent for next year. The Economist, in a bold, tongue-in-cheek prediction that is almost certain to be correct, notes that on January 17, 2017, when we’ll learn of China’s ...
Read More »ME homeland security market to double by 2020
ALKESH SHARMA / Emirates Business Homeland security has become one of the most imperative issues in today’s fast-zooming world. At a time when the world is facing dozens of crisis situations, making countries vulnerable to various threats, global economies are pledging to earmark enhanced budgets to ensure the safety of mankind as well as infrastructure. Treading the same trend, Middle ...
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