Author: Busman

A long-hidden trove of unpublished works by Franz Kafka could soon be revealed following a decade-long battle over his literary estate that has drawn comparisons to some of his surreal tales. A district court in Zurich upheld Israeli verdicts in the case last week, ruling that several safe deposit boxes in the Swiss city could be opened and their contents shipped to Israel’s National Library. At stake are untouched papers that could shed new light on one of literature’s darkest figures, a German-speaking Bohemian Jew from Prague whose cultural legacy has been hotly contested between Israel and Germany. What’s in the vaults? Though the exact content of the vaults remains unknown, experts have speculated the cache could include endings to some of Kafka’s major works, many of which were unfinished…

China’s economic growth held steady in the latest quarter despite a tariff war with Washington, in a reassuring sign that Beijing’s efforts to reverse a slowdown might be gaining traction. The world’s second-largest economy expanded by 6.4% over a year earlier in the three months ending in March, the government reported Wednesday. That matched the previous quarter for the weakest growth since 2009. “This confirms that China’s economic growth is bottoming out and this momentum is likely to continue,” said Tai Hui of JP Morgan Asset Management in a report. Government intervention Communist leaders stepped up government spending last year and told banks to lend more after economic activity weakened, raising the risk of politically dangerous job losses. Beijing’s decision to ease credit controls aimed at reining in rising debt…

Argentine presidential hopeful Sergio Massa would renegotiate the country's unpopular financing deal with the International Monetary Fund if he wins office later this year, the former congressman told reporters on Tuesday. The $56 billion IMF standby financing agreement includes fiscal cuts that have enraged wide segments of the public, denting the popularity of President Mauricio Macri. "We need to find a longer-term mechanism to ensure that Argentina meets its debt obligations, " the 46-year-old Massa said in a briefing with international correspondents. Macri was forced to negotiate the IMF deal last year amid a sell-off in the peso that raised questions about Argentina's ability to pay dollar-denominated bond obligations. Many Argentines blame the IMF for policies that set the stage for the country's 2002 sovereign debt default and economic meltdown.…

The White House is considering other possible candidates for the board of the Federal Reserve although President Donald Trump still backs his two potential nominees, Herman Cain and Stephen Moore, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Tuesday. Kudlow, speaking to reporters at the White House, added that Trump's picks are still going through the nominating process for the seats on the U.S. central bank's board of governors. "We are talking to a number of candidates. We always do," he said when asked if the White House was vetting alternates for Cain and Moore, whose controversial potential nominations have raised concerns among economists as well as some of Trump's fellow Republicans. The U.S. Senate must confirm any nominees, and Republicans control the chamber with 53 seats. But four of…

The Lebanese government has yet to disclose its budget for 2019, but protesters are already in the streets fearing the "difficult and painful" reforms it is expected to announce as it tries to get spending in control and rein in public debt. Retired army officers blocked several highways with burning tires Tuesday, a preemptive warning to the government against any cuts to their pensions that might be part of its effort to reduce one of the world's heaviest public debt burdens. Though small, the protests offered a glimpse of the political minefield facing the government. The budget is seen as a critical test of its will to enact long-stalled reforms that economists say are more pressing than ever for an economy that has suffered years of low growth. State finances…

The African Development Bank (AfDB) promised Tuesday to invest $4.4 billion (3.89 billion euros) in infrastructure in over the next seven years. The sum will help to finance 30 projects, ranging from electricity networks and transport to information technology and communication and improve cross-border trade, it said in a statement. Spending will be focused on Cameroon, Chad, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and the Central African Republic. Growth in central Africa doubled in 2018, with GDP expanding by 2.2% against 1.1% a year earlier, according to AfDB figures. The rate is still far behind the average for sub-Saharan Africa, which was 3.5 percent.   ...

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday he will create a "Robin Hood" institute to return to the people the ill-gotten wealth seized from corrupt politicians and gangsters. His administration is drawing up a bill to create an independent "Robin Hood" institute "against the corrupt" that would put confiscated goods such as real estate, jewelry and cars into the public's hands, the president told reporters. "Let's quickly return everything to the people that's been stolen," he said at his regular morning news conference. For example, the institute could assign seized homes to municipalities for schools, hospitals or elderly care centers, he said. Assets seized by the government tend to have been ransacked or require expensive upkeep, he noted. He did not estimate the value of the assets, or…

Tiger Woods' victory at the Masters golf tournament on Sunday, his first major victory since 2008, is expected to lift sales for sponsors, broadcasters and golf courses lucky enough to host a tournament with Woods playing. The competition put the 43-year-old back on top of a sport he helped transform 25 years ago. "Tiger sells golf," says Eric Smallwood, president of Apex Marketing Group, a Michigan analytics firm. Apex found that Nike earned $22.5 million worth of brand exposure just from Woods' final round, with Nike's "Swoosh" logo splashed on his hat, shirt, pants and shoes. Nike stock was up about one percent on Monday. Tournament broadcaster CBS Corp saw a ratings bump. Based on preliminary data, the final round of Sunday's tournament was the highest-rated morning golf broadcast since…

Turkey's purchase of a Russian air defense missile system should not trigger U.S. sanctions because Ankara is not an adversary of Washington and remains committed to the NATO alliance, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Monday. Speaking at a U.S.-Turkey conference in Washington amid rising tensions between the two NATO allies over Ankara's plan to buy the Russian S-400 missile system, Akar adopted a relatively conciliatory tone and urged to resolve issues via dialogue. "Turkey is clearly not an adversary of the United States," Akar said and added that, therefore, its procurement of the S-400 system should not be considered within the scope of U.S. sanctions designed to target America's enemies. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week that Washington had told Ankara it could face retribution for buying…

Ivanka Trump arrived in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, Sunday for a summit on African women's economic inclusion and empowerment. In addition to attending the summit, the daughter of the U.S. president, who is also an advisor to her father, will meet with female workers in the coffee industry, and tour a female-run textile facility. President Donald Trump signed a National Security Presidential Memorandum in February, establishing the Women's Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Initiative. W-GDP says it hopes to "reach 50 million women by 2025, through the work of the the United States Government and its partners." It was not immediately clear if the controversy that surrounds the U.S. president will follow his daughter to Africa. The president has not been kind in his remarks about Africa and…

Cryptocurrency exchanges are growing in the Philippines, despite a downturn last year in the value of the virtual currencies, due to growing popular demand and lenience among regulators. Authorities in the developing Southeast Asian country have permitted at least 29 exchanges of cryptocurrency following three that the central bank said it approved this week, according to domestic media reports.  That count, which is high for Asia, follows a total of 10 exchanges permitted by the central bank. The Cagayan Economic Zone Authority in the archipelago's far north has issued 19 additional permits, the zone's website said in October.  These exchanges feed into the development of a fast-growing financial technology, or fintech, sector in the Philippines, said Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist with Banco de Oro UniBank in Metro Manila. "Fintech…

In a twist, China has announced that it has persuaded Malaysia to resume a canceled rail project worth $10.7 billion. The sudden about-face by Kuala Lumpur, which had earlier rejected the Chinese-funded project, will be a big boost for China ahead of a Belt and Road Forum in Beijing later this month, say analysts. China is hosting its second annual Belt and Road Forum from April 25 to 27 in Beijing. The event is likely to include the heads of state and governments of 40 different countries and officials from 60 others as Beijing tries to win more support for the trillion-dollar infrastructure and investment plan known as the Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI. In recent months, the initiative has faced tough challenges as Sierra Leone, Bangladesh, Myanmar and…

The latest power outage started another tough week for factory owner Antonello Lorusso in the city of Valencia, once Venezuela's industrial powerhouse. For the past month, unprecedented nationwide blackouts paralyzed the factory and the rest of the country, cutting off power, water and cell service to millions of Venezuelans. Lorusso's packaging plant, Distribuidora Marina, had already struggled through years of hyperinflation, vanishing client orders, and a flight of employees. Now the situation was worse. For the whole month of March, Lorusso said, his company produced only its single daily capacity: 100 tonnes of packaged sugar and grains. When Reuters visited on April 8, he was using a generator to keep one of his dozen packaging machines working to fulfill the single order he had received. Power had been on for…

Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Jeff Bezos on Thursday challenged retailers to hike their minimum wages to $16 an hour, prompting a comeback from Walmart Inc which asked its rivals to pay taxes. "Today I challenge our top retail competitors (you know who you are!) to match our employee benefits and our $15 minimum wage," the billionaire entrepreneur said in a letter to shareholders. "Do it! Better yet, go to $16 and throw the gauntlet back at us." The online retailer raised its minimum wage to $15 per hour for U.S. employees from November, giving in to critics of poor pay and working conditions at the company. Some critics have said the hike was insufficient and note that Amazon paid zero U.S. federal income tax on more than $11 billion in…

Walt Disney Co on Thursday said its new family-friendly streaming service will cost $7 monthly or $70 annually with a slate of exclusive TV shows and movies from some of the world's most popular entertainment franchises in a bid to challenge the digital dominance of Netflix. The ad-free monthly subscription called Disney+ is set to launch on Nov. 12 and in every major global market over time, the company said. In addition to Disney films and TV shows, it will feature programming from the Marvel superhero universe, the "Star Wars" galaxy, "Toy Story" creator Pixar animation and the National Geographic channel. The company said it has struck deals with Roku Inc and Sony Corp to distribute Disney+ on streaming devices and console gaming systems and expects it to be widely…

Uber Technologies Inc. has 91 million users, but growth is slowing and it may never make a profit, the ride-hailing company said Thursday in its initial public offering filing.  The document gave the first comprehensive financial picture of the company, which was started in 2009 after its founders struggled to get a cab on a snowy night.  The filing underscores the rapid growth of Uber's business in the last three years but also how a string of public scandals and increased competition from rivals have weighed on its plans to attract and retain riders.  $3B loss from operations The disclosure also highlighted how far Uber remains from turning a profit, with the company cautioning it expects operating expenses to "increase significantly in the foreseeable future" and it "may not achieve profitability." Uber lost $3.03 billion in 2018 from operations, excluding one-off…

U.S. consumer prices increased by the most in 14 months in March, but the underlying inflation trend remained benign amid slowing domestic and global economic growth. The mixed report from the Labor Department on Wednesday was broadly supportive of the Federal Reserve's decision last month to suspended its three-year campaign to raise interest rates. The U.S. central bank dropped projections for any rate hikes this year after lifting borrowing costs four times in 2018. Minutes of the Fed's March 19-20 meeting, published on Wednesday, showed most policymakers viewed price pressures as "muted," but expected inflation to rise to or near the central bank's 2 percent target. The Fed's preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures price index excluding food and energy is currently at 1.8 percent. "For the most part,…

Mexico's foreign minister on Wednesday criticized hold-ups in the flow of goods and people at the U.S-Mexico border, and said he planned to discuss the matter with U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials later in the day. After days of traffic delays at sections of the border that have alarmed businesses, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said the disruptions were raising costs for supply chains in both countries. "Slowing down the flow of people and goods at the northern border is a very bad idea," Ebrard said in a post on Twitter, using unusually frank language on an issue that has caused constant friction between Mexico and the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. Ebrard said his ministry would get in contact on Wednesday with the new leaders of the U.S.…

Cloaked in black and carrying white buckets filled with artificial blood, the group filed in silence to the entrance of London's Downing Street, behind a troupe of child and teen activists. Ringing a bell as they walked, the 45 adults -- all participants in Extinction Rebellion, a protest movement seeking rapid action to curb global warming -- formed an arc facing the British prime minister's residence and poured out their buckets, turning the surrounding road into a sea of red. The liquid, they said, symbolized "the blood of our children," on the hands of politicians who have failed to act on climate change and stem its impacts, from worsening floods and droughts to growing poverty and water and food shortages. Among those at the protest in March were three members…

After generations of trawling the same waters, the fishermen on the coast of Tamil Nadu in southeastern India know where to cast a net or park a boat without resorting to signs or GPS maps. But their customary rights over this common space - a right won by families who have fished it for centuries - are under threat as the demands of modern life threaten age-old livelihoods and their once fertile habitat. First, families' land and precious sea access was usurped by factories and ports. Now, their rights are under fresh attack by a newly amended Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) law. "Governments have treated the coastline as an empty space that economic actors can take over, forgetting that it is common property of coastal villages, towns and cities," said…

Rob Garver contributed to this report The top Senate Democrat says President Donald Trump's picks to fill two vacant seats on the Federal Reserve Board are unqualified for the job. Trump has nominated former pizza chain boss Herman Cain and conservative economic commentator Stephen Moore for the Fed — posts that need Senate confirmation. Both are strong Trump supporters. "I don't see the qualifications of Cain or Moore fitting in with the mission of the Fed, which is to conduct monetary policy and not be political," Sen. Chuck Schumer said Tuesday. Cain is best known as the former CEO of the Godfather's Pizza chain and a failed 2012 Republican presidential candidate. He had several top positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. But local Fed boards do not set monetary…

Boeing's orders and deliveries sank in the first quarter, with zero new orders for the 737 MAX following a worldwide grounding in March in the wake of two fatal plane crashes. The groundings forced Boeing to freeze deliveries of the MAX, which had been its fastest-selling jetliner until a March 10 crash on Ethiopian Airlines that killed all 157 onboard, just five months after a similar crash on Lion Air that killed all 189 passengers and crew. Total orders, an indication of future demand, fell to 95 aircraft in the first quarter from 180 a year earlier, suggesting a wait-and-watch approach for airlines as Boeing rides out the worst crisis in its history. Still, Boeing is ahead of its European rival Airbus, which last week said it had won 62…

Britain's Standard Charter Bank has agreed to more than $1 billion in fines and forfeited assets to the U.S. and New York state for violating U.S. sanctions against trade with Iran. Federal and state prosecutors said Tuesday that between 2007 and 2011, the global financial institution processed about 9,500 financial transactions worth about $240 million through U.S. financial institutions to benefit Iranian entities. In addition, U.S. authorities said an unnamed former bank employee in the United Arab Emirates pleaded guilty in Washington to conspiring to defraud the U.S. and to violate the trade sanctions. Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski said the case "sends a clear message to financial institutions and their employees: If you circumvent U.S. sanctions against rogue states like Iran — or assist those who do — you will…

More families of victims of the Lion Air crash in Indonesia are suing Boeing after its chief executive apologized and said a software update for the MAX 8 jet would prevent further disasters. Family members and lawyers said Monday that CEO Dennis Muilenburg's comment last week related to an automated flight system was an admission that helps their cases. The anti-stall system is suspected as a cause of the Lion Air crash in October and an Ethiopian Airlines crash in March that also involved a MAX 8 jet. The two crashes killed a total of 346 people. Preliminary reports into both crashes found that faulty sensor readings erroneously triggered the anti-stall system that pushed the plane's nose down. Pilots of each plane struggled in vain to regain control. Families of…

China and Pakistan say their ongoing multibillion-dollar infrastructure development cooperation program under Beijing’s global Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has entered the next stage after achieving initial targets, dismissing reports the project increased Islamabad’s debt burden rather than boosting economic growth.  Officials in the neighboring countries, traditionally strong allies, say 22 "early harvest" projects, launched five years ago under what is known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), have been completed with an unprecedented Chinese investment of $19 billion.  It has built new roads, power plants and operationaliZed the deep-water strategic Arabian Sea commercial port of Gwadar, which overlooks some of the world’s busiest oil and gas shipping lanes and is celebrated as the gateway to CPEC. Responding to skeptics Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang, while responding to skeptics…

Venezuela will "fulfill its commitments" to Cuba despite United States sanctions targeting oil shipments from the South American country to its ideological ally, Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said on Monday. Washington on Friday imposed sanctions on 34 vessels owned or operated by state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela as well as on two companies and a vessel that have previously delivered oil to Cuba, aiming to choke off a crucial supply of crude to the Communist-run island. Venezuela has long sent subsidized crude to Cuba. The United States describes the arrangement as an "oil-for-repression" scheme in which Havana helps socialist President Nicolas Maduro weather an economic crisis and power struggle with the opposition in exchange for fuel. Arreaza said he would not reveal Venezuela's "strategy," but that the sanctions would…

As the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) heads into its eighth decade amidst doubts in some quarters of its contemporary relevance, the Czech Republic’s Foreign Minister tells VOA that there’s “huge consensus” among political parties in his country in support of NATO membership and of America’s leadership within the alliance. “Our membership is very important, and America’s leading role is key to the success of NATO,” says Czech Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček. This year marks the 20th anniversary of NATO membership for the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Petříček recognizes NATO as an organization “of shared values, as well as an instrument to defend those values.”  Petříček says his country shares the prevailing opinion among NATO member states about what constitutes threats to NATO: “we’re facing a more assertive Russia,…

Japanese automaker Nissan has ousted from its board former chairman Carlos Ghosn and another executive, American Greg Kelly, who are facing charges of financial misconduct. Nissan shareholders approved the measure Monday after a three-hour extraordinary meeting at a Tokyo hotel. Both Ghosn and Kelly have denied the allegations against them. Ahead of the vote, Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa and other Nissan Motor Company executives apologized and bowed deeply to shareholders attending the meeting. Shareholders also approved the appointment of French partner Renault SA's chairman Jean-Dominique Senard to replace Ghosn. Renault owns 43 percent of Nissan. Ghosn was initially detained in November on suspicion of conspiring to understate his Nissan income by about 50 percent between 2010 and 2015.  He was released on bail in early March and then re-arrested for…