Bloomberg Japan is struggling to keep its farms running as farmers age and young people shun the work. This has opened the door for more foreign workers — including a growing number found to be working illegally. The number of Japanese farmers has dropped by about half since 2000, to below 2 million this year, according to the agriculture ...
Read More »India refiner rally still cheap for SBI
Bloomberg Indian refiners that have benefited from the scrapping of fuel subsidies still have room to extend their world-beating surge on improving margins and cheap valuations, according to SBI Life Insurance Co. The rally still hasn’t caught up with fundamentals, said Gopikrishna Shenoy, chief investment officer at SBI Life, India’s second-biggest private insurer by assets under management. Indian Oil ...
Read More »Eurozone business activity strong despite Brexit
Brussels / AFP Eurozone economic activity edged higher in August with few signs that Brexit-linked dangers were yet hurting the European economy, a closely watched survey showed Tuesday. Data monitoring company Markit said the eurozone economy maintained its resilience despite Britain’s shock vote to leave the EU, with a strong showing from France as well as powerhouse Germany. Markit ...
Read More »Brexit may cut Scots tax revenue by 13%
Bloomberg Brexit will hit the Scottish economy and cut the semi-autonomous government’s tax revenue by as much as 13 percent by 2030, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s administration said. Depending on the post-Brexit trading arrangement adopted by the U.K. government with the remaining 27 European Union nations, Scottish gross domestic product could be as much as 11.2 billion pounds ($14.8 ...
Read More »Deal puts Microsoft apps on Lenovo smartphones
San Francisco / AFP Microsoft apps such as Office and Skype will be installed on Lenovo mobile devices powered by Android software under the terms of a collaboration announced late Monday. The US technology giant and the Chinese computer titan said they were “deepening their strategic relationship” with a move that could add to the ranks of people using Microsoft ...
Read More »Drugmaker Medivation surges on Pfizer takeover
Bloomberg Cancer drugmaker Medivation gained nearly 20 percent after the announcement it would be bought by Pfizer, but Wall Street stocks were otherwise generally flat. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.1 percent at 18,529.42 while the S&P 500 fell less than 0.1 percent to 2,182.64. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, where Medivation is listed, rose 0.1 percent 5,244.60 Chris ...
Read More »Volkswagen reaches supplier deal to resume production
Frankfurt / AFP Volkswagen AG negotiated through the night to reach an agreement with a rebellious supplier, ending a six-day standoff that halted production of Golf and Passat cars after the parts maker refused to deliver seat and transmission components. Prevent Group will restart deliveries as soon as possible, and Volkswagen’s factories affected will gradually return to normal production, ...
Read More »Turkey pounds IS targets in Syria
Ankara /Â AFP Turkey on Tuesday pounded IS extremists in Syria with new artillery strikes as expectations grew of a major Ankara-backed offensive against the extremists after a deadly suicide bombing on its soil. With tensions flaring on the Turkey-Syria border following the bombing in the nearby city of Gaziantep that left 54 people dead, Turkish howitzers hit extremist and ...
Read More »Sudanese migrant killed in Calais clashes
Lille / AFP One Sudanese migrant was killed and another injured in clashes with Afghan migrants outside the French port of Calais, authorities said on Tuesday. The two migrants were among a group of people from the “Jungle” camp who tried to access a motorway to smuggle onto trucks crossing the Channel to Britain on Monday night, local police ...
Read More »Boko Haram’s Shekau ‘wounded’ in air strike
Lagos / AFP Nigeria’s military claimed on Tuesday to have seriously injured Boko Haram’s elusive leader Abubakar Shekau and killed other commanders in an air strike on the extremist group’s forest stronghold. Nigeria has repeatedly claimed to have killed Shekau in previous raids only for him to appear shortly afterwards in videos. Shekau was “fatally wounded in the shoulder” ...
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