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| Colonial ghosts haunt Belgium as Africa museum eyes change Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 11:54 PM PST  By John O'Donnell BRUSSELS (Reuters) - At the entrance to Belgium's Museum for Central Africa stands a giant golden statue of a European missionary with an African boy clutching his robes, along with a plaque that reads: "Belgium brings civilization to Congo". The statue and some of the exhibits inside anger many visitors for the way they portray African people and Belgium's brutal colonial past. Now Belgium wants to change that, at least a little. It is spending 66 million euro ($90 million) to modernize the museum, set in rolling gardens outside Brussels, and put a new face on the colonial experience. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt investment law bars 3rd party challenge to contracts: source Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 11:44 PM PST Egypt's draft new investment law will contain provisions to prevent third parties from challenging contracts made between the government and an investor, a cabinet source said on Monday. Since the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in 2011, Egyptian courts have issued at least 11 rulings ordering the state to reverse deals signed by the former president's administration. Private Arab Gulf businessmen have repeatedly cited a lack of guarantees that their money will be safe in Egypt as a reason for holding back investment. The draft must be approved by Egypt's president before it becomes law. Full Story | Top |
| Insurer Hiscox's profit rises on low catastrophe claims Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 11:35 PM PST (Reuters) - Hiscox Ltd posted an 12.4 percent rise in full-year profit as the Lloyds of London insurer and reinsurer recorded fewer claims during a benign U.S. hurricane season. Pretax profit jumped to 244.5 million pounds ($408.00 million) as the insurer did not take any material hits from catastrophes until the floods that hit Britain at the end of last year. ... Full Story | Top |
| South Korea in rare offer of aid to North for foot-and-mouth outbreak Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 11:30 PM PST South Korea has offered North Korea help with an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in pigs, which would be the first government-level humanitarian help since 2010 and comes as ties between the rivals have been warming. North Korea's Ministry of Agriculture said in state news agency report on Saturday at least 3,200 pigs had been infected with foot-and-mouth and some had died but most were slaughtered. The outbreak, which began on January 8, had caused economic losses and was spreading because of shortages of vaccines, diagnostic means and disinfectants, the news agency said. South Korea's Agriculture Ministry said it wanted to help the North contain the spread. Full Story | Top |
| Japan Abe aide: BOJ can await summer data to decide on easing Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 11:27 PM PST  The Bank of Japan can wait for economic data due in the summer before deciding whether to ease policy further, a dovish aide to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday, indicating the government is not pressing the central bank for immediate action to bolster the economy. As the world's third-biggest economy slows ahead of an April 1 rise in the national sales tax, speculation has risen that the BOJ may need to ramp up its already massive purchases of bonds and other assets. But Koichi Hamada, professor emeritus of economics at Yale University, told Reuters in an interview, "My position is rather optimistic that the Bank of Japan should examine the economy closely when economic data reflecting the tax hike come out." Major data showing the tax-hike impact will begin to be released from June and July. The BOJ last week kept its expansionary policy steady but extended and expanded special loan programs to help boost the economy. Full Story | Top |
| Kenya shilling weakens marginally due to dollar demand Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 11:27 PM PST  NAIROBI (Reuters) - The Kenyan shilling was a touch weaker on Monday, reflecting growing demand for dollars from importers seeking to meet end-of-month obligations. At 0645 GMT, commercial banks posted the shilling at 86.20/30, slightly weaker than Friday's closing rate of 86.15/25. "We are seeing people picking (dollars) ahead of the close of the month. This is just the usual end-of-the-month demand," Bank of Africa Kenya's head of corporate trading Peter Mutuku said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sina hires Credit Suisse, Goldman for $500 million Weibo U.S. IPO: source Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 11:26 PM PST HONG KONG (Reuters) - Sina Corp has hired Credit Suisse AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc for a U.S. initial public offering of its Sina Weibo microblogging service worth about $500 million, a source familiar with the plans said on Monday. Sina Weibo, one of several Chinese Twitter-like short messaging blogs, plans a listing in the second quarter, added the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. (Reporting by Elzio Barreto; Editing by Michael Flaherty and Matt Driskill) Full Story | Top |
| South Africa's rand holds steady vs dollar Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 10:59 PM PST  The rand held steady against the dollar on Monday, trading in a recent range as global risk aversion eased and investors waited to see the outcome of this week's key data and economic events, including South Africa's budget. South Africa's currency was at 10.9425 at 0642 GMT, not far off a 10.9350 close in New York on Friday. Full Story | Top |
| South Africa's Nedbank posts 15 pct rise in FY earnings Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 10:59 PM PST JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Nedbank, South Africa's fourth largest banking group, reported a better-than-expected 15 percent rise in full-year earnings on Monday after growing income from both lending and fees on one hand, and slower growth in debt costs on the other. The bank, majority owned by insurer Old Mutual, said diluted headline earnings per share totalled 1,829 cents in the year to end-December, from 1,590 cents a year earlier. A Thomson Reuters SmartEstimate had forecast earnings rising to 1,783 cents per share. ... Full Story | Top |
| US condemns attacks by Boko Haram in Nigeria Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 10:56 PM PST By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday condemned last week's attacks in Nigeria by the Islamist group Boko Haram and underscored a commitment to help Nigerian authorities crack down on the militants the United States deems a terrorist organization. "Unspeakable violence and acts of terror like the ones committed by Boko Haram last week in northern Nigeria are horrific, wrong and have no place in our world," Kerry said in a statement. Boko Haram gunmen killed about 100 people in the northeastern Nigeria town of Bama on Wednesday, storming the town, firing on a school, shooting or burning to death dozens of people and trashing the palace of a traditional ruler of one of West Africa's oldest Islamic kingdoms. Last Sunday, Boko Haram gunmen killed more than 100 people in the village of Igze, spraying homes with bullets, detonating explosions and burning down dozens of houses. Full Story | Top |
| Shares sag as China market sputters, yen recovers Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 10:47 PM PST  By Lisa Twaronite TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian stocks dropped on Monday, rekindling safe-haven demand for the yen, as plunging property stocks took a toll on China and investors continued to fret about the impact of the U.S. Federal Reserve's stimulus withdrawal. "With traders set to take overnight weakness in their stride, they'll be looking towards today's German Ifo survey for direction," Jonathan Sudaria, a dealer at London Capital Group, said in a note. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.6 percent, while Japan's Nikkei stock average ended down 0.2 percent, erasing its morning gains though pulling off its session lows. China shares sank to a two-week low, dragging Hong Kong markets down, as property and banking counters slipped on mainland news reports that stoked fears banks have stopped extending loans to property-related companies. Full Story | Top |
| Mt. Gox's CEO resigns from Bitcoin Foundation Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 10:33 PM PST  Mark Karpeles, chief executive of Mt. Gox, the embattled Toyko-based bitcoin exchange, resigned on Sunday from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, in the latest blow to the digital currency. Jinyoung Lee Englund, a spokesperson for the Bitcoin Foundation - a trade group promoting the adoption of the digital currency, confirmed the news and said the resignation was effective immediately. Earlier in February, Mt. Gox, the best-known digital marketplace operator, said it is halting withdrawals indefinitely after it detected "unusual activity. Following the halting, the foundation's chief scientist Gavin Andresen defended the currency and criticized Mt. Gox, saying the problem was with exchange, not Bitcoin. Full Story | Top |
| Tie, tee or tiz? Operating systems also-rans seek to outsmart Google, Apple Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 10:21 PM PST  You may have heard of the operating system Tizen (you may even know how to pronounce it: tie-zen, not tee-zen or tiz-zen). But the chances of it running your smartphone are slim, about the same as having had one of its predecessors or rivals: Maemo, Moblin, MeeGo, Bada, Ubuntu, Sailfish or Firefox. Every Mobile World Congress in the past four years has featured an announcement about one of these operating systems (OS). This year is no different, as handset makers, carriers and chipmakers try to break the stranglehold that Google Inc and Apple Inc have on the software that runs the world's mobile phones. Full Story | Top |
| Obama climate change agenda faces first Supreme Court test Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 10:09 PM PST  By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court considers on Monday whether President Barack Obama's administration overstepped its authority by imposing new regulations to reduce pollution in response to climate change. In a 90-minute oral argument, extended from 60 minutes because many parties are involved, the justices will examine a relatively narrow challenge by industry groups and Republican-leaning states to one aspect of a suite of regulations issued by Obama's Democratic administration in 2009 and 2010. The regulations represent the first major federal effort to tackle greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say are the driving force behind climate change. Full Story | Top |
| Facebook CEO riding high - for now, after WhatsApp deal Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 10:02 PM PST  By Alexei Oreskovic and Leila Abboud SAN FRANCISCO/BARCELONA (Reuters) - Facebook Inc Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg will take a victory lap at the world's largest mobile technology conference in Barcelona on Monday, after beating out Google Inc in a $19 billion acquisition of free messaging service WhatsApp. Just 18 months after appearing at risk of getting crushed by the swelling mobile wave, the No. 1 social network is riding high. Now, Zuckerberg's purchase of WhatsApp - while raising eyebrows with the hefty price paid for a company that boasts 450 million users but has little revenue - places Facebook at the heart of smartphone communications. Zuckerberg and WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum are likely to cast themselves as partners not foes of the industry in their appearances at Mobile World Congress on Monday. Full Story | Top |
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