Category: News

Nigeria moved closer to turning the first part of a long-awaited oil industry bill into law after the lower house passed the same version of the legislation approved by the Senate last year, a lawmaker in the House of Representatives said on Thursday. It is the first time both houses have approved the same version of the bill. It still needs the president's signature to become law. The legislation, which Nigeria has been trying to pass for more than a decade, aims to increase transparency and stimulate growth in the country's oil industry. Under President Muhammadu Buhari's administration, the Petroleum Industry Bill was broken up into sections to ease passage. The House of Representatives passed the first part called the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) on Wednesday. "The PIGB, as…

Wall Street roared upward Wednesday, with investor enthusiasm sending all three major stock indices to record finishes, and the Dow to its first close above 26,000 points. The blue-chip Dow gained 1.3 percent to close at 26,115.65 — just eight trading sessions after breaking the 25,000 mark — with strong showings from Boeing, IBM and Intel.  The broader S&P 500 added 0.9 percent to close at 2,802.56, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained a full percentage point to settle at 7,298.28. With just 11 trading days so far in 2018, Wednesday's session marked the seventh time this year all three major indices closed at all-time highs. Maris Ogg of Tower Bridge Associates told AFP the sustained rally was boosted by a "confluence of good news," including strong company earnings, slashed corporate tax…

Financial crime fighters at the U.S. Treasury are "aggressively" pursuing virtual currency platforms that lack strong internal safeguards against money laundering, a top official told a Senate panel on Wednesday. With more criminals using the emerging asset class to store and transmit their ill-gotten gains, Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) will pursue malfeasant virtual currency platforms even if they are located overseas, Sigal Mandelker, the U.S. Treasury Department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial crimes, told the Senate Banking Committee. U.S.-based platforms for bitcoin and other virtual currencies are required to comply with antimoney laundering (AML) rules including filing suspicious activity reports, with around 100 such platforms registered with FinCEN. But many other countries have no such requirements. "The real vulnerability that we all have to address is that while…

In a modest apartment near a Caracas slum, nutrition professor Nancy Silva and four aids spread rich, dark Venezuelan cocoa on a stone counter to make chocolate bars to be sold in local shops that cater to the crisis-hit country's dwindling elite. Like some 20 recently launched Venezuelan businesses, Silva uses the country's aromatic cocoa to make gourmet bars of the kind that can fetch more than $10 each in upscale shops in Paris or Tokyo. The oil-rich but recession-devastated nation's Byzantine bureaucracy makes large-scale exports nearly impossible for small businesses. As a result, most of her bars are sold locally for less than one U.S. dollar - well out of reach of millions of Venezuelans who earn less than that in a week, but reasonably priced for the well-heeled…

El Salvador is discussing a deal with Qatar under which Salvadoran migrants facing the loss of their right to stay in the United States could live and work temporarily in the Middle Eastern country, the government of the Central American nation said on Tuesday. Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump's administration said that as of September 2019, it would eliminate the temporary protected status, or TPS, that allows some 200,000 Salvadorans to live in the United States without fear of deportation. Presidential communications chief Eugenio Chicas said El Salvador was in talks to see how Salvadorans could be employed in Qatar, a wealthy country of some 2.6 million people that is scheduled to host the soccer World Cup in 2022. "The kingdom of Qatar ... has held out the possibility…

Car dealerships in Mexico City have kicked off the new year offering "clearance sales" and free insurance as 2017 models collect dust on their lots, a reminder that consumer nerves over high interest rates could slow the economy ahead of elections. The first drop in auto sales in eight years is the most visible sign that the great Mexican shopper, the heart and soul of Latin America's second-largest economy, is feeling the pinch of inflation at a 16½-year high and a battered peso. A government decision to scrap fuel subsidies last year has made running a car more expensive, while the central bank's battle with inflation has put car loans out of reach for many. "If I'm going to buy a new car and then not be able to fill…

Ethiopian Airlines says it has finalized an agreement with Zambia to re-launch the southern African country's national carrier. The partnership with Zambia comes as Ethiopian Airlines is opening new routes and hubs and is acquiring new aircraft. In a statement Tuesday, the airline said it will have a 45 percent stake in the Zambian carrier and it aims to make the Zambian capital, Lusaka, its newest aviation hub. The remaining 55 percent will be acquired by the Zambian government which is aiming to revive the country's aviation sector after Zambia Airways ceased operations on January 2009. "The launching of Zambia Airways will enable the traveling public in Zambia and the Southern African region to enjoy greater connectivity options," said Ethiopian Airlines CEO, Tewolde Gebremariam. "It is only through partnerships among…

Bitcoin slid as much as 18 percent on Tuesday to a four-week low, as fears of a regulatory crackdown on the market spread after reports suggested it was still possible that South Korea could ban trading in cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin’s slide triggered a selloff across the broader cryptocurrency market, with biggest rival Ethereum down 23 percent on the day at one point, according to trade website Coinmarketcap, and the next-biggest, Ripple, plunging by as much as a third. Bitcoin traded as low as $11,191.59 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange. By 1400 GMT it has edged up to $11,650, but that was still down more than 14 percent, leaving it on track for its biggest one-day fall since September. Jamie Burke, chief executive of Outlier Ventures, a venture capital firm that is…

A Brazilian court on Monday ordered the world's largest iron ore miner Vale SA to repair environmental damages its operations caused in land belonging to a community of descendants of escaped slaves in northern Brazil. Federal prosecutors announced the ruling in a statement that said the electricity transmission lines and a bauxite pipeline damaged soil and silted up rivers in the Moju "quilombola" territory in the northeast of  Pará state. The court also ordered Vale to set up a project to generate income for the 788 families affected by the company's operations and compensate them with cash until it was implemented. No value was given for the cost of the reparations Vale must pay. The Rio de Janeiro-based company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a…

The European Union's trade tsar has no idea what Donald Trump will tell his audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos next week, but she is clear what the EU's message to the U.S. president will be. America is shooting itself in the foot by withdrawing from global leadership on trade, Cecilia Malmstrom, the 49-year-old Swede who has served as Europe's trade commissioner for the past three years, told Reuters. Under Malmstrom's direction, the EU has juggled a dizzying array of trade talks over the past year. In July it clinched a preliminary deal with Japan. And early this year it hopes to seal agreements with Mexico and the Latin American Mercosur bloc. The retreat of the United States under Trump has played a big role in this push,…

Indigenous women in Latin America must be at the center of efforts to adapt agriculture to deal with the threat of climate change and help tackle hunger and poverty, said a top U.N. food official. Jose Graziano da Silva, head of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said women were too often left out of development schemes, despite expert knowledge of the environment passed down through generations. "They have fundamental roles in the spiritual, social and family arenas and are seed guardians — critical carriers of specialized knowledge," Graziano da Silva told a Mexico City forum. "Their social and economic empowerment is ... a necessary condition to eradicate hunger and malnutrition in their communities," he said, according to a statement. Poor health care, malnutrition and illiteracy are other issues faced…

Crude oil prices reached a 30-month high this week. But the government agency that analyzes and disseminates energy information says the rally may have run its course. The Energy Information Administration predicts U.S. crude prices will stabilize to about 55 dollars a barrel for West Texas Crude and 60 dollars a barrel for Brent Crude, with slightly higher prices for both in 2019. One energy expert disagrees and says oil prices are on their way up. Mil Arcega explains. ...