Four more years of cheap oil: OPEC

VIENNA (AFP) - The OPEC oil cartel sees only a gradual improvement in the global crude market, with prices recovering to above $70 per barrel after four years, according to a report released Wednesday.With the global benchmark oil price touching an 11-year low of $36.04 on Monday, the cartel which produces a third of the world's crude said that it foresees a "gradual improvement in market conditions as growing demand and slower than previously expected non-OPEC supply growth eliminate the existi

Dec. 24, 2015

Cordon Bleu culinary schools to close in U.S.

NEW YORK -- The Cordon Bleu culinary school will close its 16 campuses in the United States after failed attempts to find the right buyer, the company that operates the locations said.Created in 1895, France's Le Cordon Bleu presents itself as the world's largest network of culinary and hospitality schools.Career Education Corporation -- a company independent from Le Cordon Bleu International -- said in a statement that it was slowly discontinuing the operations of Le Cordon Bleu North America a

Dec. 18, 2015

VW: appears only small number of staff behind scandal

Volkswagen believes that only a small number of employees were behind the emissions scandal, but its board chairman said Thursday the company is still investigating and suggested the probe does not exclude top managers.In an update on the German automaker's attempt to get to the bottom of the scandal, Hans Dieter Poetsch said "we are relentlessly searching for those responsible for what happened and you may rest assured we will bring these persons to account.''He confirmed the company had suspen

Dec. 10, 2015

OPEC set to maintain output levels as oil glut worsens

VIENNA (Reuters) -- OPEC looked unlikely to take steps to cut oil production to lift languishing prices at a meeting on Friday, potentially worsening one of the worst crude gluts in history.Benchmark Brent oil futures LCOc1 are below $45 per barrel, just a few dollars off their 6-year lows. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) own basket of crude grades is below $38 per barrel - a fraction of what most members need to balance their budgets.　　OPEC’s poorer members have be

Dec. 4, 2015

Hungarian PM: Greece does not meet its obligations

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban accused Greece Thursday of not fulfilling its obligations as a member of the deal that allows free movement within the European Union.Orban made the comment in a joint news conference with South Korean President Park Geun-hye and the prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia after the inaugural summit between South Korea and the Visegrad Group.He did not elaborate on what he meant by Greece's failure to fulfill its obligations.He said throug

Dec. 4, 2015

ECB cuts interest rate, to unveil more stimulus for eurozone

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- The European Central Bank cut one of its key interest rates and promised to unveil more stimulus measures on Thursday in an attempt to boost lending and help the growth in the 19-country eurozone economy.  The bank said it is reducing the interest rate on deposits from commercial banks from minus 0.2 percent to minus 0.3 percent. The negative rate is intended to push banks to lend excess cash by imposing a penalty for leaving it at the central bank.  The size of the cu

Dec. 3, 2015

Google ups ante, nearly doubles bet on renewable energy

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Google is nearly doubling the amount of renewable energy feeding its massive data centers that enable more than 1 billion people to search for information, watch video clips and communicate virtually anytime they want.The long-term commitments announced Thursday cover up to 842 megawatts of power that will flow from six different wind and solar power projects scheduled to be finished within the next two years in the U.S., Chile and Sweden. Google isn't disclosing how much i

Dec. 3, 2015

EU launches probe into McDonald's Luxembourg tax deals

BRUSSELS (AFP) -- The European Union launched a probe Thursday into US fast food giant McDonald's tax deals with Luxembourg, widening an investigation into alleged tax dodging by major multinationals that includes Amazon and Apple.The European Commission, the EU's competition regulator, "has opened a formal probe into Luxembourg's tax treatment of McDonald's," a statement said."Its preliminary view is that a tax ruling granted by Luxembourg may have granted McDonald's an advantageous tax treatme

Dec. 3, 2015

China's economy to grow slightly faster than expected: ADB

MANILA (AP) -- China's economy will grow slightly faster than expected this year at 6.9 percent and its shift to fostering services and private consumption is helping to support regional growth, the Asian Development Bank said Thursday.An ADB report said Asia's developing economies remain resilient to economic weakness in industrialized countries and are on track to grow 5.8 percent in 2015 and 6 percent in 2016.It said Asia's growth is supported by vibrant private consumption and services in Ch

Dec. 3, 2015

Daily won-yuan trading tops $2 bln in one year

The average daily trading volume of the won-yuan trading market here has exceeded $2 billion over the past year as it has successfully taken root to help bolster South Korea-China economic ties, data showed Tuesday.The daily turnover reached an average $2.26 billion as of end-November, compared with a daily $880 million recorded in December last year, the first month of the launch of the market, according to data compiled by the Bank of Korea. In November, the figure hit $3.63 billion.The daily

Dec. 1, 2015

IMF decides to include Chinese yuan in SDR basket of key currencies

The International Monetary Fund decided Monday to include China's yuan in a basket of key international currencies in a move expected to serve as a boon to the world's second-largest economy.The IMF decided at an executive board meeting to add the yuan, also known as the renminbi , to the special drawing right  basket of currencies currently made up of the U.S. dollar, euro, Japanese yen and British pound.The decision has been widely expected after IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said ea

Dec. 1, 2015

South Korea Grants Kakao, KT-led Groups Online Bank Permits

South Korea gave preliminary approval for two groups -- one from the new economy and another from the old, and both with Chinese partners -- to set up the nation’s first Internet-only banks as the government seeks to reinvigorate a sector suffering from slow growth and slim margins.Kakao Corp., operator of Korea’s leading messaging app KakaoTalk, and KT Corp., the former government phone monopoly, were chosen from a field of three applications. A group headed by online retail operator Interpark

Nov. 29, 2015

Facebook ramps paid leave time for new dads

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) -- With Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg about to become a dad, the social network boosted the amount of time fathers can take off to bond with their new babies.Beginning with the new year, dads working full-time for Facebook anywhere in the world will have the option of taking four months' paid leave.All new dads working for Facebook outside the US currently get a minimum of four weeks' paternity leave, with more time offered in locations where required by local law, acco

Nov. 28, 2015

EPA says VW cheating software is on more vehicles

Volkswagen's emissions cheating scandal widened Friday after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the German automaker used software to cheat on pollution tests on more six-cylinder diesel vehicles than originally thought.Volkswagen told the EPA and the California Air Resources Board the software is on about 85,000 Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche vehicles with 3-liter engines going back to the 2009 model year. Earlier this month the regulators accused VW of installing the so-called “defeat

Nov. 21, 2015

'China should end exchange-rate distortion‘

China should press ahead with efforts to make the yuan's exchange rate more flexible as it seeks to boost the currency's global usage, according to a former central bank adviser.The yuan's likely inclusion in the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights basket is recognition of the progress China has made since it unified the official and market exchange rates in 1994, but more needs to be done, said Yu Yongding, a former academic member of the People's Bank of China's monetary polic

Nov. 19, 2015

Barclays to pay $150m more in forex probe

Barclays will pay an additional $150 million to New York State’s financial regulator to resolve allegations that it rigged foreign exchange trading by putting the bank’s interests ahead of those of its clients, the regulator said on Wednesday.The British bank is also removing a head of global electronic trading for foreign exchange-related misconduct, the New York Department of Financial Services said. The person’s identity was unclear.The penalty will be reflected in Barclays’ fourth quarter 20

Nov. 19, 2015