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US starts carrying out nuke deal as time expires on GOP

AP Photo/Evan Vucci Latest News Moscow urges US to engage Syria, offers military talks US deplores Russia’s decision to shut American Center Comedians build ‘gay bar’ on Russia-owned land in Finland Russia fines French supermarket, Burger King Former Kremlin insider expects 2-year economic downturn var mytd = document.getElementById(‘mytd’); var mydiv = document.getElementById(‘spnrefmoneymarkets’); if (mytd != null) {mytd.innerHTML = spnrefmoneymarkets.innerHTML; mydiv.innerHTML = ”}; Putin gives Roy Jones Jr. Russian citizenship var mytd = document.getElementById(‘mytd’); var mydiv = document.getElementById(‘spnrefmoneymarkets’); if (mytd != null) {mytd.innerHTML = spnrefmoneymarkets.innerHTML; mydiv.innerHTML = ”}; WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration began carrying out the Iran nuclear deal Thursday as time expired on Republican efforts to derail it, appointing a senior diplomat to ensure that Tehran moves further away from bomb-making capability and outlining a months-long process before Western nations will start easing economic sanctions. Senators failed to reach the 60-vote threshold for a measure to keep […]

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U.S. Names Ambassador to Implement Iran Nuclear Deal

WASHINGTON—Secretary of State John Kerry tapped a former ambassador to Poland and career diplomat to lead U.S. efforts to implement the Iranian nuclear accord sealed between six world powers and Iran in July. Mr. Kerry’s pick, Stephen Mull, recently left his post in Poland and is a career foreign-service officer. He will be charged with working to ensure Iran and other partners comply with the steps laid out in the nuclear accord. At one point in his 33-year diplomatic career, he helped to design a U.N. Security Council resolution that enacted nuclear sanctions on Iran. In a statement announcing Mr. Mull’s appointment, Mr. Kerry said the Obama administration would work closely with allies “to deepen our security cooperation and to counter Iran’s destabilizing behavior, including its support for terrorism.” Mr. Kerry added: “These concerns and others related to Iran will continue to have the attention of the highest levels […]

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Buhari’s Backing Tightens Nigeria Central Bank’s Grip on Naira

Investors hoping that Nigeria’s central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele will succumb to pressure to devalue the naira weren’t aware of one crucial factor: he has the backing of President Muhammadu Buhari. In his first public comments on the currency since taking office in May, Buhari, 72, said on Wednesday he opposes a weakening of the currency. His stance endorses Emefiele’s policy of restricting foreign-exchange trading to stabilize the naira despite a plunge in oil revenue in Africa’s biggest crude producer. It also raises questions about the central bank’s independence and puts the two men at odds with foreign investors, local businesses and some members of the Monetary Policy Committee who say the naira is overvalued, deterring capital inflows and hindering economic growth. “There appears to be some unwritten agreement between the presidency and the central bank that the naira will not be devalued, in spite of the deteriorating fundamentals,” […]

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Nigerian States Tap Emergency Fund to Pay Wages Amid Oil Slump

Nigerian states have drawn from a 300-billion naira ($1.5 billion) emergency fund at the central bank and are asking for more money as they struggle to pay civil service salaries after the oil-price slump. Eighteen states have tapped the intervention fund and more requests are being processed, Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele said in a statement e-mailed by the presidency on Thursday. Debts worth a total of 574 billion naira have been restructured for 23 states since August, it said. At least half of Nigeria’s 36 states, which rely on monthly federal handouts for the majority of their funding, have been unable to pay bureaucrats’ wages after Brent crude prices fell by half in the past year. Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer.

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These Are the African Nations Most Exposed to China’s Slump

China’s slowdown is rippling across Africa and these three nations are the most exposed, relying on demand from the Asian economy for almost half their exports: Republic of Congo, Angola and Mauritania. Oil accounts for the bulk of Angola’s and Congo’s exports, damaging their prospects after crude prices plunged 55 percent since the beginning of June last year to below $50 a barrel. The price of iron ore, which makes up more than 40 percent of Mauritania’s exports, has dropped by almost a third in the past year. The three nations each shipped more than 45 percent of their exports in 2014 to China, data from the International Monetary Fund shows. “For countries like Angola, which basically only has one commodity, there is a huge knock when prices fall and less oil is being exported to China,” Christie Viljoen, an economist at NKC African Economics, said by phone from […]

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Coal use in China is slowing

U.S. Energy Information Administration, China National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Source: Economic deceleration, industry restructuring, and new energy and environmental policies have slowed the growth of coal consumption in China and are also driving more centralized and cleaner uses of coal. After nearly a decade of rapid growth, energy-based consumption of coal, which currently supplies two-thirds of China’s overall energy use, grew only 1% to 2% in 2012 and 2013 and was essentially flat in 2014. Total energy consumption in China has slowed as its economic growth has eased and as the composition of gross domestic product (GDP) has shifted. In 2013, the service sector share (47%) of GDP surpassed the industry sector share (44%) for the first time in Chinese history. The service sector share increased to 48% in 2014, already exceeding the government’s 47% goal for 2015. Policies to accelerate the development of service industries are likely […]

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China to continue crackdowns on illegal share sales and speculative trading

China’s securities regulator said on Friday it would continue its crackdowns on illegal share sales and speculative trading, having recently probed 19 such cases. The China Securities Regulatory Commission said that in one of the cases, major shareholders of a company reduced stakes in their company worth 900 million yuan ($141.45 million). China has banned major shareholders from reducing stakes over the next six months in a bid to reduce selling pressure in its volatile stock market. (Reporting by Samuel Shen and Pete Sweeney ; editing by Simon Cameron-Moore )

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Citi Says China Going Green Will Hurt Industrial Commodities

China’s demand for industrial commodities will probably be hurt as the biggest energy and metals user intensifies efforts to rein in pollution, according to Citigroup Inc. The country will focus on the environment as never before in its forthcoming 13th Five-Year Plan and may start a carbon trading program next year or the year after, Citigroup said in a report on Friday. Costs for energy-intensive industries will increase, with steel and electricity likely to be the first to implement the scheme, the bank said. Now the world’s biggest carbon emitter, China is moving to address the environmental damage that’s been a byproduct of its breakneck economic expansion. Xi Jinping’s first five-year plan since becoming president in March 2013 will chart the path for the nation’s further development. It’s expected to be delivered at the time of the Communist Party Plenum in October. “Environmental initiatives are likely to be among […]

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China’s Strategy in U.S. Car Market: Make Parts First

A two-year-old factory near Kansas City gives a good look at China’s strategy for becoming a global force in autos. The Riverside, Mo., plant’s operator is controlled by China’s No. 1 auto maker, but the factory doesn’t build cars. Its about 200 workers assemble door handles, center consoles and other parts that ship to a nearby General Motors Co. GM 0.35 % factory, which fits them into Chevrolet Malibu sedans. Beijing’s industrial planners have identified car-parts plants like this as a vehicle into the world’s auto markets. By first learning to make and sell car parts in markets like the U.S., leaders in China’s auto industry say, companies can then use the lessons to move on to selling cars overseas. “By running factories there and hiring local people” in the U.S., says Dong Yang, a vice president of the government-backed China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, “it will pave the […]

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BHP Billiton Sees Rocky Outlook for Coal

A multiyear downturn in the energy commodity, used to generate electricity and make steel, is worsening as miners continue to produce too much supply and China’s economy slows, said Mike Henry. China’s restrictions on certain types of highly polluting coa l, introduced earlier this year as part of an accelerating campaign to clean up its air, have added to a significant glut in the global market for the fuel, the mining executive said on Friday. “There are no signs of things getting better in the immediate term,” he said during a speech in Brisbane, Australia, according to prepared remarks. Coal prices have been tumbling since 2011 as cooling demand for the fuel was met by rising supplies from new mines planned when the market was booming. Price declines have deepened this year. The value of metallurgical coal, which is burned for steelmaking, is down as much as 30% from […]

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