Disappointment as Russian favorites lag in French race

  Bloomberg Even as the Kremlin called the French presidential election results a matter for the voters, Russian lawmakers and state-run media didn’t hide their disappointment at Emmanuel Macron’s victory. Macron won Sunday’s elections because voters were under pressure from the European Union and Germany, Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the International Affairs Committee in Russia’s upper house of parliament, wrote ...

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Afghan minister resigns after Taliban massacre of soldiers

  Bloomberg Afghanistan’s defense minister and the chief of army staff resigned on Monday, three days after more than 140 soldiers were killed in the Taliban’s deadliest assault in 16 years. As the government and the U.S. struggled to manage the deteriorating security situation, Abdullah Habibi and Qadam Shah Shahim stepped down with “immediate effect” following the attack at an ...

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For the sake of women

  PROVIDENCE, R.I. / AP Every submarine in the US fleet was designed with the height, reach and strength of men in mind, from the way valves are placed to how display screens are angled. That’s going to change. With women now serving aboard submarines, defense contractor Electric Boat is designing what will be the first Navy subs built specifically to ...

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India topples Japan as world’s second largest LPG importer

  Bloomberg India toppled Japan as the world’s second-largest importer of liquefied petroleum gas as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pledge to provide cooking gas cylinders to the poor and wean them off polluting fuels drove up consumption. Imports of LPG, mostly used as cooking fuel, soared 23 percent during the financial year that ended March 31 to 11 million tons, ...

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Oil halts five-day slide as OPEC backs extended cuts

  Bloomberg Oil rose for the first time in six days as an OPEC-led committee was said to back prolonging supply cuts and as other markets rallied after the first round of French presidential elections. Futures climbed as much as 0.9 percent in New York after slumping 6.7 percent last week, the first drop in four weeks. A six-month extension ...

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Australia’s LNG exports face review

  Bloomberg Australia’s competition regulator said the possible sale of natural gas intended for the country’s domestic market to overseas customers instead must be reviewed amid high wholesale prices at home. Ahead of a meeting Wednesday between Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and energy producers over Australia’s potential gas shortages, the regulator said the ability of the Santos Ltd.-led Gladstone LNG ...

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India gears up to roll out GST

  Bloomberg The challenge is daunting: Convert an economy of more than 1 billion consumers, 29 states, 22 official languages, 9 million businesses all operating under a spider’s web of taxes, arcane regulations and competing political ambitions into a unified common market. But that’s the goal as India gets ready to roll out a goods-and-services tax after a 10-year battle ...

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China cools its growth in wealth products

  Bloomberg China’s boom in wealth-management products worth trillions of dollars, under scrutiny from regulators because of potential threats to financial stability, is slowing for now. Outstanding products issued by banks stood at 29.1 trillion yuan ($4.2 trillion) as of March 31, up 18.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the China Banking Regulatory Commission. The growth rate slumped ...

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Republican cracks emerge in Trump energy plan

  Bloomberg For all Donald Trump’s efforts to revive coal, market forces and some of his own supporters are vying to write their own version of America’s energy future. Divisions persist among the president’s supporters — and even within his own cabinet — about whether to continue subsidies for wind and solar power, enact a carbon tax, remain party to ...

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London house prices decline most in 8 years

  Bloomberg London house prices posted their largest annual drop in almost eight years in April as buyers shunned the capital’s central areas. The average asking price in the city fell 1.5 percent to 636,777 pounds ($813,000) this month from a year earlier, the largest annual decline since May 2009, property website Rightmove Plc said on Monday. On the month, ...

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