The world’s biggest oil producers Russia and Saudi Arabia on Monday eyed up extending an output reduction deal ahead of an OPEC meeting later this month. “Russia is in solidarity with the efforts of our partners to rebalance the market and considers that the joint initiative to stabilise the world oil market is currently effective,” energy minister Alexander Novak said, Russian news agencies reported. “We are discussing […]
WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump will not make a decision on whether the United States should remain in the Paris climate agreement until after he returns from the May 26-27 G7 summit, the White House said Tuesday. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said that Trump is continuing to hear from advisers on the pros and cons of the United States remaining in the global accord, but that […]
JEDDAH: Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moallem said on Monday his country would reject any UN role in monitoring the implementation of four “de-escalation” zones.“We do not accept a role for the UN or international forces to monitor the agreement,” Al-Moallem told reporters in Damascus.Regime backers Russia and Iran and opposition supporter Turkey reached a deal on Thursday on four “de-escalation zones” in Syria where the regime and […]
OSLO Nations around the world have adopted more than 1,200 laws to curb climate change, up from about 60 two decades ago, which is a sign of widening efforts to limit rising temperatures, a study showed on Tuesday. “Most countries have a legal basis on which future action can be built,” Patricia Espinosa, the U.N.’s climate change chief, told a webcast news conference of the findings issued […]
Credit: CC0 Public Domain Investing in new ways of utility-scale electricity storage and capturing carbon to store underground should be a priority for governments aiming to meet the greenhouse gas and ‘green energy’ targets set out in the Paris Agreement despite shrinking research and development budgets, suggests a new paper published today in Nature Energy. Researchers analyzed a range of studies and expert reports on public energy […]
The news has been abuzz lately with a forex (foreign exchange market) investment company based in Penang. The company has around 400,000 investors/members, and they have all not received their promised dividends recently. Worse still, they were all denied access when they tried to log into their accounts on the website. Even when they tried going to the offices, they could not get answers because the offices were CLOSED!!! […]
Feathery clouds hang above a stretch of aquamarine water, bordered by a hilly island landscape speckled with pastel-coloured houses. There’s a cruise ship, some yachts, a couple of chase boats and some sailboats – but not the typical kind, with soft fabric sails fluttering in the wind. These are professional racing sailboats, with statuesque sails that sport the logos of luxury brands. They are riding the waves […]
GENEVA United Nations mediator Staffan de Mistura said on Monday that he was reconvening peace talks between the Syrian government and opposition in Geneva on May 16. In a statement, de Mistura voiced hope that the agreement reached last week in Astana among Russia, Iran and Turkey to set up “de-escalation” zones in Syria will be implemented in full “thus bringing about a significant de-escalation in violence, […]
By Tom Hals and Diane Bartz | WILMINGTON, Del./WASHINGTON WILMINGTON, Del./WASHINGTON Health insurer Anthem Inc (ANTM.N) asked a Delaware judge on Monday to give it more time to try to win approval for a merger with rival Cigna Corp (CI.N), which is seeking to end the deal and collect a $1.85 billion break-up fee. Anthem asked Vice Chancellor Travis Laster of Delaware’s Court of Chancery to grant […]
Even so, Russia has sent signals it is hoping to gain support for the agreement from the United States despite their deep differences over the Syria war, now in its seventh year. Continue reading the main story Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia will visit with his American counterpart, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, in Washington on Wednesday to discuss Syria and other issues, both […]
ALGIERS Libya’s neighbours and the United Nations on Monday voiced their support for a meeting held last week between the North African country’s main rival figures, the head of the U.N.-backed government, Fayez Seraj, and eastern commander Khalifa Haftar. The two men had held talks in Abu Dhabi, their first in more than a year and a half, over a U.N.-mediated deal that Western powers hope will […]
Virtustream announced Monday that it’s launching Healthcare Cloud, a service built on the Virtustream Enterprise Cloud that’s designed to meet the security, regulatory, and IT needs of healthcare providers. It provides an environment compliant with federal HIPAA and HITECH regulations with availability service level agreements of up to 99.999 percent. It can be deployed in a public, private, or hybrid cloud environment, with a set of on […]
Cofco, China’s powerful state-controlled grains company, is set to appoint the former chief executive and deputy chair of agricultural trader Louis Dreyfus Company as a non-executive director for its international agricultural trading arm. Serge Schoen, who resigned from the LDC board last year, is poised to become one of Cofco International’s four non-executive directors on the company’s 10-person board. His appointment comes as questions have been raised […]
Sinclair Broadcast Group, the biggest US local television station owner, has struck an agreement to buy Tribune Media for $43.50 a share, valuing Tribune at about $3.9bn. The transaction is the first big move of an expected consolidation wave in media unleashed by the Federal Communications Commission’s recent decision to effectively loosen a cap on local television station ownership. The rule change has US media companies jostling […]
By Phil Stewart | COPENHAGEN COPENHAGEN U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Monday the United States would closely examine proposed de-escalation zones aimed at easing Syria’s civil war but warned “the devil’s in the details” and that much needed to be worked out. The deal to create “de-escalation” zones in the major areas of conflict in western Syria took effect on Saturday. The initiative was proposed […]
Authored by James Holbrooks via TheAntiMedia.org, “It was easy enough to spot my cheerleader: She was the only person shouting in a crowd of quiet, curious, shy supporters. Her visage dug with deep wrinkles, but she was full of energy and smiles. When I saw her, I merged to the right and gave her a high-five. When I did, a group of women started to cheer me, […]
In a week that started with big oil and US shale producers trumpeting their ability to thrive in a world of $50 a barrel crude, the market had a very quick response: let’s see if you can do it at $45. A brutal sell-off across commodity markets this week has quickly taken the shine off strong first-quarter results that would otherwise have been viewed as a triumph […]
Monday UN focus on migrants The UN will meet in Geneva to address the “human rights of all migrants, social inclusion, cohesion and all forms of discrimination, including racism, xenophobia and intolerance”. Organisers say they are working towards an ambitious global policy on migration, an issue high on the political agenda after the Mediterranean migrants’ crisis and US President Donald Trump’s clampdown on migration into the US […]
Wall Street people underestimated how nasty and political the struggle over the post-Brexit fate of European clearing houses would become. This week the European Commission offered threats to London-based clearing houses and inducements for their customers to move their trade to the EU. €650bn Value of euro-denominated trades that clear through London each business day UK negotiators in turn demand that euro derivatives clearing should stay in […]
Apple and Amazon, rivals in the technology and home entertainment industries, may finally be friends again as reports claim that an Amazon Prime Video app will soon be launched for the Apple TV. The move will end one of the biggest problems that users have with the Apple TV. Amazon Prime Video On Apple TV According to a report by Recode, people familiar with the matter revealed […]
Hamas announced on Saturday that it had chosen Ismail Haniyeh, a longtime leader of the militant Islamist group in Gaza, as its new political chief, after signalling a more pragmatic line in a new policy document. Mr Haniyeh served as a deputy to Khaled Mashal, the outgoing political leader of Hamas, and is expected to continue his policies. As head of the group’s political bureau, Mr Mashal […]
The balance of power within Hamas, which Israel, the United States and much of the West defines as a terrorist organization, has been shifting to Gaza, according to experts. The group seized control of the Palestinian coastal enclave in 2007 after beating its main rival, Fatah, led by President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, in parliamentary elections a year earlier. Continue reading the main story In […]
MOSCOW Russia, Turkey and Iran agreed in a memorandum signed on May 4 to establish four separate de-escalation zones in Syria for at least six months, according to a text detailing the agreement published by the Russian foreign ministry on Saturday. The largest de-escalation zone includes Idlib province and adjoining districts of Hama, Aleppo and Latakia provinces. The other three zones are in northern Homs province, the […]
Iceland says its geothermal power station at Reykjanes can produce clean energy independent from fossil fuels by generating electricity from the heat stored inside the earth It’s named after a Nordic god and drills deep into the heart of a volcano: “Thor” is a rig that symbolises Iceland’s leading-edge efforts to produce powerful clean energy. If successful, the experimental project could produce up to 10 times more […]
