Clean power companies sell 1,109 MW in Argentina auction

Bloomberg Energy developers in Argentina won contracts to sell 1,109 megawatts of renewable electricity in a government-organized auction, after the nation implemented reforms aimed at promoting wider use of clean power. Wind-power companies including Envision and Pampa Energia agreed to provide 708 megawatts of capacity, Renewable Energy Undersecretary Sebastian Kind said at an event Friday in Buenos Aires. Solar developers ...

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US accuses Russia of cyber attacks to disrupt election

  Washington / AFP US officials formally accused the Russian government of trying to “interfere” with the American presidential election, and vowed to respond at an undisclosed time and place. The assertion against Russia comes with relations already frayed over NATO defenses and stalled efforts to end the bloody civil war in Syria. A joint statement from the Department of ...

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Islamists beat liberals in Morocco elections

  Rabat / AFP The Islamist party which has headed Morocco’s coalition government since Arab Spring-inspired protests five years ago has beaten liberal rivals in parliamentary elections, results showed on Saturday. Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane’s Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) took 125 seats out of 395, the interior ministry said after all ballots were counted. Its main rival, the ...

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Belgium missed 13 chances to identify Paris attackers

  Brussels / AFP Belgian police missed 13 opportunities to unmask the participants of the deadly Paris November attacks before the events, according to an internal report leaked to a newspaper on Saturday. The police report in the De Tijd daily shows that as early as February 2015, the force were in possession of phone records linking known terrorist suspects ...

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Georgia holds knife-edge parliamentary vote

  Tbilisi / AFP Georgians voted on Saturday in bitterly contested parliamentary polls that have sparked fears of political instability in the Caucasus nation, with two pro-Western parties tied after a fraught campaign. The knife-edge elections see the ruling Georgian Dream party, led from behind the scenes by billionaire ex-PM Bidzina Ivanishvili, grappling with the United National Movement (UNM), founded ...

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Hungary shuts biggest opposition newspaper

Budapest / AFP Hungary’s biggest opposition newspaper has been suspended, its owner said on Saturday, stoking concerns about media freedom under right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The opposition Socialists called the halting of Nepszabadsag’s print and online operations was a “black day for the press” and called a demonstration outside the paper’s offices at 1600 GMT. Owners Mediaworks said however ...

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Boy’s killing in Kashmir sparks fresh clashes

  Srinagar / AFP Indian-administered Kashmir’s main city came under curfew again after thousands clashed with government forces during the funeral of boy killed in protests, police said on Saturday. Police and paramilitary troops fired tear gas, pellets and live rounds into the air to disperse the funeral procession of the 12-year-old as his body was carried to Srinagar’s “Martyr’s ...

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Russia deploys N-capable missiles on NATO doorstep

  Vilnius / AFP Russia is again deploying nuclear-capable Iskander missiles into its Kaliningrad outpost bordering two NATO members, Lithuania said on Saturday, warning the move was aimed at pressuring the West into making concessions over Syria and Ukraine. “Russia is holding military exercises in Kaliningrad, and its scenario includes deployment of Iskander missile systems and the possibile use of ...

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The new reactionaries!

A reactionary is someone who wishes to return, usually unrealistically, to an earlier and more appealing era. We have two reactionaries running for president. Both peddle agendas that promise to re-create a reassuring past. We are being fed different varieties of nostalgia. Neither will work. Donald Trump is most explicit. He pledges to “make America great again.” What does this ...

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Central banks are spreading unnecessary confusion

  If there’s a golden rule for central bankers in the 21st century, this is it: Seek clarity and avoid uncertainty. A central bank’s target should be clear. The data it uses should be known. The analysis it conducts on that data should be comprehensible. And, certainly, politics should have nothing to do with its decisions. Negative Interest Rates Yet ...

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