A reindeer’s perilous journey in Swedish Lapland

  Dikanäs / AFP A herd of reindeer moves silently down the mountain, their silver coats and majestic antlers blending into the Swedish tundra as their herder leads them to their winter grazing grounds in the plains below. The annual pilgrimage, called transhumance, takes on almost sacred meaning for Sweden’s indigenous Sami reindeer herders nowadays, as they face modern-day threats ...

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Jantar Mantar: India’s protest street

  New Delhi / AFP At one end of a backstreet in downtown Delhi a group of women hold a vigil to demand rapists be executed, while at the other acolytes of a spiritual leader arrested for sexual assault demand his release. Anyone seeking a glimpse of the bewildering range of issues animating voters in the world’s largest democracy should ...

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Indonesia targets Google, FB in push for more tax

  Bloomberg Indonesia is widening its tax net to target global technology giants like Google and Facebook Inc., a strategy that’s raising red flags for fear it may deter foreign investment. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati is seeking to squeeze more revenue out of an economy that’s been hit by weak commodity prices and subdued demand from China, Indonesia’s biggest ...

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China oil giant ex-chief warns drillers becoming ‘dinosaurs’

  Bloomberg China’s biggest state-owned companies will see “dramatic changes” in the next few years as they may downsize and become more efficient, according to the former chairman of two of the country’s biggest producers. Chinese oil companies have “tremendous room” to improve efficiency and will be “suffering for the next few years” amid the oil crash that’s pushed prices ...

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Nokia smartphones to come back in ’17

  Bloomberg Nokia smartphones will make a comeback next year, and the current owners of the Finnish brand are betting that the connection it built with billions of consumers during a decade of dominance hasn’t been broken. HMD Global has secured exclusive rights to use the brand for smartphones from Nokia Oyj for the coming 10 years, and will announce ...

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China factory activity growth goes up in Nov

  Beijing / AFP China’s factory activity grew at its fastest rate in more than two years in November, official data showed on Thursday, as cheap credit and improving demand helped revive industry in the world’s second-largest economy. The better-than-expected pick-up in the closely watched purchasing managers’ index (PMI) will provide fresh hope for stability after a long-running slowdown in ...

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World-beater status at risk as India rebuts threat to growth

  Bloomberg Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration sought to refute concerns that the clampdown on cash would strip India of its status as the world’s fastest-growing big economy. Gross domestic product, which grew a slower-than-estimated 7.3 percent in July to September, will slump to 6.5 percent over the next quarter, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of ...

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US shale cheers OPEC as oil cut ends years of starvation

  Bloomberg The US shale industry, gutted by 2 1/2 years of bankruptcies, writedowns, credit downgrades and layoffs, is poised to step back from the brink, thanks to an old enemy: OPEC. Abandoning a policy that sought to starve shale explorers and other high-cost drillers into submission, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries relented on Wednesday and agreed to curb ...

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Canada’s growth surprise affirms rise of services

  Bloomberg Canada’s economy just posted its best quarterly growth in two years. Third-quarter growth of 3.5 percent (at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate) topped the consensus estimate by one tick, and in doing so helped vindicate Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz and his vision for the future of the Canadian economy, which continues to grapple with the impact ...

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Carmakers sustain sales with big discounts

  Bloomberg Deep dealmaking wrapped in a holiday bow brought US carbuyers back into showrooms in late November, saving a month whose first half was dominated by a nasty political campaign. “Fifty percent of the people were convinced the world was going to end no matter what happened” with the presidential election, said Sean Sellers, general manager of Charles Gabus ...

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