By Brenda Goh SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Weeks after Beijing banned fundraising through token launches and ordered some bitcoin exchanges to shut, casting a chill over the cryptocurrency industry, traders say that the market is far from dead. While several exchanges have announced that they will close by the end of this month, traders have now […]
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NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s economy grew more slowly in the second quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2016 due to a weaker performance in agriculture, manufacturing and financial services, the statistics office said on Friday. The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) said the economy expanded by 5.0 percent year-on-year in […]
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By Syed Raza Hassan ISLAMKOT, Pakistan (Reuters) – As Pakistan bets on cheap coal in the Thar desert to resolve its energy crisis, a select group of women is eyeing a road out of poverty by snapping up truck-driving jobs that once only went to men. Such work is seen as life-changing in this dusty […]
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By Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) – Antigua and Barbuda asked the United States on Friday to settle a decade-old trade dispute to help the Caribbean country pay the $250 million cost of recovery from Hurricane Irma, which “completely decimated” the island of Barbuda. The WTO backed Antigua in 2005 in a dispute with the United […]
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By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) – The humanitarian situation in Yemen is a “catastrophe”, and cholera cases could reach a million by the end of the year, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Friday. Warring parties in Yemen – including the western-backed Saudi-led coalition – are all using disproportionate force, leading to […]
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By Alex Dobuzinskis (Reuters) – A team of scientists won approval from Hawaii officials on Thursday to build a $1.4 billion telescope atop a volcano indigenous people consider sacred, but opponents vowed to continue fighting. The Hawaii Board of Land and Natural Resources voted 5-2 to allow construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on […]
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Lusaka (Reuters) – Zambia plans to trim its fiscal deficit to 6.1 percent of GDP in 2018 from 7 percent this year, Finance Minister Felix Mutati said in a budget speech on Friday. Presenting the 71.6 billion kwacha ($7.4 billion) budget for 2018 to parliament, Mutati said the economy of Africa’s No.2 copper producer should […]
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PORT LOUIS (Reuters) – Mauritius’ economy grew by 4.1 percent year on year in the second quarter, up from 2.6 percent in the same period of 2016, the statistics office said on Friday. It attributed the increase to a 7 percent rise in investments and strength in the construction sector. It maintained a June forecast […]
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By Darren Whiteside TORAJA, Indonesia (Reuters) – Yosefina Tumanan, a resident of the remote Toraja region of Indonesia’s island of Sulawesi, was thrilled to see her sister-in-law. “You look so beautiful!” Tumanan told the skeletal remains of her relative who has been dead for six years. The scene is part of an ancient Torajan ritual […]
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By Matt Scuffham TORONTO (Reuters) – The chief executive of Canada’s biggest lender on Thursday pushed back on a suggestion by JPMorgan <JP.N> Chief Executive Jamie Dimon that bitcoin is a fraud, though he said the cryptocurrency needs monitoring. Speaking at a Reuters Newsmaker event in Toronto, Dave McKay, CEO of Royal Bank of Canada […]
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JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – A South African High Court ruled on Friday that it could not compel President Jacob Zuma to set up a commission of inquiry into alleged influence-peddling in his government. The opposition Democratic Alliance had asked the court to force Zuma to establish a commission based on a report last year by an […]
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By Takahiko Wada and Hideyuki Sano TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Financial Services Agency said on Friday it has approved 11 companies as operators of cryptocurrency exchanges, in a move that sets the country apart from its neighbors which are tightening their grip on virtual money. The Japanese government recognized bitcoin as legal tender in April […]
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