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Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga officially expanded and extended the nation’s coronavirus state of emergency on Tuesday, as government advisers recommended legal changes that would allow penalties for violations, the Associated Press reported. The measures, approved by a government task force, add seven prefectures to the six areas already under a state of emergency and extend it to Sept. 12.
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BHP Group has agreed to sell its petroleum business to Woodside Petroleum in a merger to create a top 10 independent oil and gas producer worth A$38.5 billion ($28 billion) with growth assets in Australia and the Americas, Reuters reported. BHP's exit from petroleum, which made up just 5% of its annual earnings, speeds up its exit from fossil fuels amid pressure from environmentally conscious investors. BHP CEO Mike Henry, however, said the company remained committed to metallurgical coal used in steel making.
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Chinese real-estate billionaire Hui Ka Yan has stepped down as chairman of China Evergrande Group’s flagship property business, months after the unit dropped plans for a multibillion-dollar listing on the mainland, the Wall Street Journal reported. The chairman of Hengda Real Estate, the main onshore subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed Evergrande, is now Zhao Changlong, commerce registration information on Chinese database provider qcc.com showed Tuesday. It is unclear exactly when the change happened. Mr.
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Laurentian University Issues RFP for Governance and Operational Review as It Continues Restructuring
Laurentian University has issued a request for proposals from firms to undertake a review of its governance and operations as it continues through its insolvency restructuring, Sudbury.com reported. The university has set an Aug. 31 deadline for companies bidding on any one of, or a combination of the following: a governance review of Laurentian’s senate; a governance review of Laurentian’s board of governors; and an operational review. Companies interested in the contract have been asked to make submissions through MERX (reference No. 0000205175) and Bonfire.
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The Taliban strengthened control of the Afghan capital Tuesday as many stores reopened, traffic police returned to their posts and a senior official from the Islamist movement arrived for contacts with political leaders affiliated with the fallen Afghan republic, the Wall Street Journal reported. Thousands of Afghans employed by Western embassies in Kabul remained stranded in the city, unable to enter the airport for evacuation flights. Military flights resumed as the U.S.
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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern put the nation into a three-day lockdown after the discovery of the first community case of Covid-19 since February, Bloomberg News reported. The snap lockdown will begin at midnight tonight as authorities rush to identify the source of a single infection in largest city Auckland, Ardern said at a news conference Tuesday in Wellington. While genome sequencing has yet to be completed, the case is assumed to be the highly infectious delta variant, she said.
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The Indian Supreme Court declined to interfere with the stay on the insolvency resolution process of Videocon Industries Ltd, Bloomberg Quint reported. The top court was not inclined to express any opinion on the merits of the case, a bench presided by Justice L Nageswara Rao said while hearing a petition filed by the successful bidder, Twin Star Technologies Ltd.—owned by billionaire Anil Agarwal's Volcan Investments Ltd., the parent of Vedanta Group. The bench, also comprising Justice Aniruddha Bose, asked the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal to expeditiously decide on the issue.
Japan stepped back into economic growth in the second three months of 2021, but prospects for a more robust recovery looked dim as the country grappled with its worst coronavirus outbreak since the pandemic began, the New York Times reported. The country’s economy, the third-largest after the U.S. and China, grew at an annualized rate of 1.3 percent during the April-to-June period, recording a quarterly increase of 0.3 percent. The expansion followed a quarter-to-quarter drop of 0.9 percent in the previous three-month period.
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China's factory output and retail sales growth slowed sharply and missed expectations in July, as new COVID-19 outbreaks and floods disrupted business operations, adding to signs the economic recovery is losing momentum, Reuters reported. Industrial production in the world's second largest economy increased 6.4% year-on-year in July, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday. Analysts had expected output to rise 7.8% after growing 8.3% in June. Retail sales increased 8.5% in July from a year ago, far lower than the forecast 11.5% rise and June's 12.1% uptick.
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The management of troubled private oil refiner Liaoning Bora Enterprise Group has been taken over by government officials from China’s Panjin city amid a tax probe that could lead to heavy fines and possible insolvency, Bloomberg News reported. A team led by officials from the north-eastern city, where the conglomerate is based, has been appointed to run the company from this month. Bora is seeking to restructure and avoid collapse due to mounting financial woes brought on by large amounts of unpaid taxes.
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