Category: INTERNATIONAL
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Sainsbury’s sales slip as food prices continue to fall
Sainsbury’s has reported a second consecutive quarter of falling sales, blaming falling food prices. Excluding fuel, like-for-like sales, which strip out the impact of new store openings, fell 1.1% in the 16 weeks to 24 September. Total sales fell 0.4%. Despite the drop, the UK’s second-largest supermarket said it was continuing to make progress. Chief…
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Germany ‘prepares Deutsche Bank rescue’
The German government and financial authorities are working on a rescue plan for Deutsche Bank in case it cannot pay fines in the US, according to Die Zeit newspaper. Germany’s biggest lender is facing a $14bn (£10.8bn; €12.5bn) bill for mis-selling mortgage-backed bonds before the financial crisis of 2008. In the worst-case scenario, the government…
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End of an era: BlackBerry will stop making its own phones
It’s the end of an era for BlackBerry. The company, famous for making cellphones with physical keyboards that were once so popular people nicknamed them Crackberries, has decided to stop making its own devices. BlackBerry said on Wednesday that it will rely on partners to manufacture the phones, which will still have BlackBerry’s look and…
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Kenya:Sugar shortage causes retail chain trouble with regulators
An acute sugar shortage in the domestic market and the resulting surge in retail prices have put Nakumatt Supermarkets in the eye of regulators who have launched investigations into the retail chain’s dealings in the sweetener. The Sugar Directorate, yesterday fired a letter to Nakumatt, accusing it of hoarding and rationing sugar to create an…
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Nigeria: Shell Shuts Strategic Bonny Oil Export Facility
Nigeria’s oil and gas industry is again hurt as Shell said a fire incident has forced it to close a key oil pipeline feeding the country’s strategic Bonny Export Terminal, which militants attacked last week. The ongoing oil industry challenges are causing multinational oil companies billions of dollars. SBM Intelligence risk analysts estimate that renewed…
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Malawi: Unregulated Promotion of Mining in Malawi Brings Hazards and Hardships
Nagomba E. is no longer young; her hip is giving her trouble and her back is stooped from years of bending over her corn and rice fields. Yet every morning, at the crack of dawn, the wiry 74-year-old sets out on a strenuous half-hour walk to fetch water from a nearby river so that her…
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Nigeria: Kachikwu in Algiers, Says Oil Agreement On Sight
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Ibe Kachikwu is in Algiers, Algeria where major oil producers will hold informal talks beginning from today. The minister on arrival told reporters, “Surely there will be agreement to freeze production.” He had said earlier that it was too early to comment on whether Nigeria would agree to an…
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Kenya:Two-year relief for motorists as Treasury suspends VAT on fuel
Motorists have been handed a two-year relief with the deferment of value added tax (VAT) on petroleum products, which pushes forward fuel price increases to September 2018 at the earliest. The Finance Act 2016 assented to a week ago extended the exemption of the 16 per cent tax offering relief to motorists who had feared…
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Kenya:Swiss firm on the spot over tax job
The validity of a tax management systems contract that the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) awarded a Swiss firm was thrown into doubt Tuesday after a procurement oversight agency told Parliament that it was based on fraudulent documents. The National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee (PIC) heard that SICPA Solutions SA Limited, the firm in the eye…
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South Africa:MTN denies illegal transfer of $14 billion from Nigeria
South African telecoms giant MTN on Wednesday denied an allegation that it had illegally repatriated $13.92 billion from Nigeria, saying the claim was without merit. Lawmakers in the upper house of Nigeria’s parliament agreed on Tuesday to investigate the allegation that MTN, Africa’s biggest telecoms company, illegally transferred the money out of the West African…