Bywire News

By Alessandro Parodi - The number of temporary protection status permits issued to Ukrainians in the European Union dropped in most member states in February, the bloc's statistics institute Eurostat said on Monday. EU countries had issued over the course of 2022 more than 4 million permits to Ukrainian nationals, Eurostat data shows. However, the influx seems to be gradually decreasing. "The number of decisions granting temporary protection to Ukrainians in February fell in 19 of the 26 EU members with available data," Eurostat said. Poland and Germany, each counting a total of about one million asylum seekers coming from Ukraine, saw in February a monthly drop of 3,540 and 3,080 permits to 24,905 and 25,125 respectively, the agency said. Of them, over 6,000 were under the age of 18 in Poland, and almost 8,000 in Germany. Poland, which has been for many asylum seekers the first dest...

- Former International Biathlon Union (IBU) president Anders Besseberg has been indicted on charges of aggravated corruption, Norwegian prosecutors said on Monday. The Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (Okokrim) said the offences took place between 2009 and 2018. Their charges include "accepting bribes in the form of watches, hunting trips and trophies, prostitutes and a leased car which he enjoyed the use of from 2011 to 2018 in Norway". Besseberg, 77, is a former biathlete who was the federation's president for more than two decades before resigning in 2018 after a criminal investigation was opened into allegations of corruption. "Okokrim believes there is sufficient evidence to prove that he accepted bribes continuously over a ten-year period," senior public prosecutor Marianne Djupesland said in a statement. "The seriousness of the matter is e...

GENEVA - A World Trade Organization panel said on Monday that India had violated global trading rules in a dispute with the European Union, Japan and Taiwan over import duties on IT products. "We recommend that India bring such measures into conformity with its obligations," the WTO panel's report said. (Reporting by Emma Farge and Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber)...

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations Yemen mediator said on Monday there is the most serious opportunity in eight years to make progress toward ending the conflict, but warned that the "tide could still turn unless the parties take bolder steps toward peace." Hans Grundberg told the U.N. Security Council that any new agreement in Yemen must be a clear step toward a Yemeni-led political process and that there needed to be a Yemeni-owned ceasefire. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Susan Heavey)...

BEIJING - China is highly concerned about heightened Israeli-Palestinian conflict and favours the two sides resuming peace talks as soon as possible, Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on Monday. Qin, in separate phone calls with his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts, said China is willing to play a constructive role in promoting peace in the region, according to statements posted by China's foreign ministry. U.S.-brokered peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza -territories Israel captured in a 1967 war - have stalled for almost a decade and show no sign of revival. (Reporting by Twinnie and Meg Shen; Editing by Mark Heinrich)...

BERLIN - Germany is pushing for the European Union to include the civilian nuclear sector in the bloc's new sanctions package against Russia, the Economy Ministry said on Monday. The European Union in February approved a 10th package of Russia sanctions on the anniversary of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, but hundreds of millions of euros' worth of trade with Russia's nuclear energy industry has not been directly affected. "The federal government spoke to the European Commission in favour of including the civilian nuclear sector. That should be part of the next sanctions package," the ministry said in a statement. All EU countries must agree for the bloc to impose sanctions, and Hungary has vowed to oppose any curbs on the Russian nuclear energy industry. Economy Minister Robert Habeck said the fact that the nuclear sector was still given preferential treatment in sanctions could not be justified. "Nuclear tech...

By David Shepardson - The U.S. Treasury said Monday that Volkswagen, BMW, Nissan, Rivian, Hyundai and Volvo electric vehicles will lose access to a $7,500 tax credit under new battery sourcing rules. The Treasury said the new requirements effective Tuesday will also cut by half credits for the Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Rear Wheel Drive to $3,750 but other Tesla models will retain the full $7,500 credit. Vehicles losing credits Tuesday are the BMW 330e, BMW X5 xDrive45e, Genesis Electrified GV70, Nissan Leaf, Rivian R1S and R1T, Volkswagen ID.4 as well as the plug-in hybrid electric Audi Q5 TFSI e Quattro and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) electric Volvo S60. The Swedish carmaker is 82%-owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. The rules are aimed at weaning the United States off dependence on China for EV battery supply chains and are part of President Joe Biden's effort to make 50% of U.S. new vehicle sales by 2030 EVs or PH...

- Merck & Co expects a research-and-development charge of about $10.3 billion, or $4 per share, this year as the drugmaker accounts its deal for Prometheus Biosciences Inc as an asset acquisition, CFO Caroline Litchfield said. The deal is expected to hit Merck's profit by 25 cents per share in the first 12 months, Litchfield said in an investor conference call on Monday. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter. Merck on Sunday agreed to buy Prometheus for about $10.8 billion to build up its presence in immunology. Net of Prometheus' cash balance, the price paid comes to $10.3 billion. (Reporting by Raghav Mahobe and Leroy Leo in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syammnath)...

LAGOS - Nigeria's food and drug regulator has granted provisional approval to Oxford University's R21 malaria vaccine, it said on Monday, following a similar announcement by Ghana last week. The approval is unusual as it comes before the publication of final-stage trial data for the vaccine, which aims to curb the mosquito-borne disease that kills more than 600,000 people each year, most of them African babies and children. "A provisional approval of the R21 Malaria Vaccine was recommended and this shall be done in line with the WHO's Malaria Vaccine Implementation Guideline," said Nigeria's National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). "While granting the approval, the Agency has also communicated the need for expansion of the clinical trial conducted to include a phase 4 clinical trial/Pharmacovigilance study to be carried out in Nigeria," it said in a statement by its director-general, Mojisola Christianah Adey...

By Nelson Acosta HAVANA - Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel is widely expected to be chosen this week by assembly lawmakers to lead the country for another five years, despite a rocky first term marked by the coronavirus pandemic and a near-unprecedented economic crisis. Diaz-Canel, 62, heads the Communist Party, to which all 470-members of the legislature elected by Cubans last month either belong or are sympathetic to. Cuba argues its one-party system promotes unity and limits financial interference in the assembly elections. The assembly will vote Wednesday to elect the country's president and his cabinet. No candidate other than Diaz-Canel is seen as emerging for the presidency. Once his next term is confirmed, Diaz-Canel will need to focus his efforts on overhauling Cuba's economic system, said Carlos Alzugaray, an independent political analyst formerly from the diplomatic service. "That is the great chal...

MOSCOW - Russia's oil production is forecast to remain stable until 2025, its Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin said, while Moscow plans reserves in order to make its supplies more resilient. Russia has decided to cut its crude oil output by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) until the end of the year in order to prop up the price of oil, a key contributor to its budget revenues. Russian oil production has proved resilient in the face of Western sanctions, defying forecasts of a steep decline. "According to current forecasts, oil production will be at a stable level until 2025," Sorokin was quoted as saying by Neftegazovaya vertikal magazine. Last month, JP Morgan said Russia would be able to maintain its oil output at pre-Ukraine conflict levels due to steady demand from China and India, but it might struggle to reroute some of its oil product exports away from Europe. Russia has so far managed to reroute oil...

By Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro, Amy-Jo Crowley and Mathieu Rosemain LONDON - French cooperative bank Credit Mutuel Arkea is looking to sell a stake in its subsidiary Monext, following a string of European lenders that have sought external partners for their payments businesses, three people familiar with the matter told . The group is offering a minority holding in the unit and is working with advisers at Deutsche Bank to gauge investor interest, two of the people said. Private equity funds are looking at the unit, the other person said. Arkea has previously partnered with Advent International and PSG Equity for two of its other financial technology ventures. Monext could fetch a valuation as high as 350 million euros ($383 million) in a deal, or up to 14 times its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), one of the people said. The company posted turnover of 97 milli...

(Corrects timing of end to Kollsnes maintenance outage in 5th paragraph) By Nora Buli OSLO - Ongoing strike action in Norway has led to the delay of scheduled maintenance at Norway's biggest producing gas field and a major processing plant, North Sea gas infrastructure operator Gassco said on Monday. Almost 25,000 private-sector workers in Norway went on strike earlier on Monday after talks between two major trade unions and employers broke down on Sunday. The strike action means that annual maintenance due to take place at the Troll A platform in the North Sea between April 18 April 22, curtailing exports by some 35 million cubic metres per day (mcm/day), has been cancelled. "Maintenance cancelled due to ongoing strike," Gassco said in a market message. Kollsnes, the plant onshore that processes the gas from Troll, is cutting short an ongoing maintenance. It started on Sunday and was due to end...

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp's bid to revive a key patent on its blockbuster multiple sclerosis drug Gilenya that was invalidated amid a legal dispute with China's HEC Pharm Co Ltd. The justices turned away an appeal by Novartis of a lower court's decision to cancel the patent, a ruling that paved the way for some generic versions of Gilenya. (Reporting by Blake Brittainl Editing by Will Dunham)...

MOSCOW - Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will appeal on Tuesday against his arrest and detention in Moscow's most notorious former KGB prison on charges of espionage, according to court documents. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on March 30 it had detained Gershkovich in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and had opened an espionage case against him for collecting what it said were state secrets about the military industrial complex. Gershkovich, the first American journalist detained in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the Cold War, and the Journal have denied he was involved in espionage, as has the United States. According to a public Russian judicial document, Lefortovo District Court will hear on Tuesday a complaint filed by Gershkovich against the decision to keep him in custody in Lefortovo prison while the case is being investigated. The court documents gave nothing more than basic...

By John Kruzel WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a bid by Sanofi SA to revive its antitrust lawsuit accusing rival pharmaceutical company Viatris Inc of illegally monopolizing the market with its EpiPen auto-injector, a device used to treat severe allergic reactions. The justices turned away Sanofi's appeal of a lower court's ruling rejecting the French company's claim that Canonsburg, Pennsylvania-based Viatris had effectively cornered the market through exclusive deals with prescription drug intermediaries. (Reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham)...

By Shaloo Shrivastava BENGALURU - The Bank of England likely has one more hike in its tightening cycle but it was a close call for a final quarter-point rate lift in May, according to a poll of economists who said the bigger risk was inflation being higher than they expect. Even though the Bank of England (BoE) started raising rates in December 2021, earlier than most of its peers, UK inflation has remained the highest among them, consistently running at over five times the BoE's 2% target. At the March meeting, the BoE said there were signs inflation, last reported at 10.4% in February, was peaking and would probably fade fast, prompting speculation for a pause. However, it kept the door open for more tightening if needed. Just over half of economists, 33 of 61, expected Bank Rate to rise 25 basis points to 4.50% at the conclusion of the next Monetary Policy Committee meeting on May 11. Three of those 33 expected one more...

By Horacio Soria and Juan Carlos Bustamante BUENOS AIRES - Argentine, fighting one of its worst outbreaks of dengue in recent years, is sterilizing mosquitoes using radiation that alters their DNA before releasing them into the wild. The South American country has this year recorded over 41,000 cases of the disease transmitted by mosquitoes, far above the equivalent level in previous years of major outbreaks in 2020 and 2016, government data showed. "This mosquito, due to the rise in temperature in our country and the world... is able to spread more. Their population keeps on moving further south," said National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) biologist Marianela Garcia Alba. To fight back, CNEA biologists have been experimenting with atomic sterilization since 2016. They are sterilizing 10,000 males per week and aim to increase that to 500,000. They expect to release the first batch of sterilized males in November....

HONG KONG/LONDON - HSBC's biggest shareholder Ping An is likely to vote in favour of splitting the bank up at its annual investor meeting on May 5, a source familiar with the Chinese insurer's thinking said on Monday. The source said Ping An would vote in favour of two resolutions tabled by individual investor Ken Lui, which call for HSBC to restore dividends to 51 cents per share and to provide regular updates on the possibility of spinning off its Asia business. HSBC recommended that shareholders vote against the resolutions, and has, since Ping An began urging the spinoff last November, maintained that its global presence is worth more than any such fragmentation would yield. "We remain clear that our current strategy is the fastest, safest and most value enhancing way to deliver returns," a spokesperson for the bank said on Monday. A spokesperson for Ping An declined to comment. HSBC’s other institutional s...

LONDON - British oil and gas exploration company IGas Energy said on Monday it has been granted planning consent to develop a new oil well site in Lincolnshire. The site is close to IGas' existing Glentworth-K site which has been producing oil for 60 years. Lincolnshire county council has granted planning permission for an initial appraisal well and up to six horizontal development wells in the second phase of the development. The first phase has the potential to add around 200 barrels a day (bbl/d) of oil and the second phase could add a further 500 bbl/d, IGas said in a statement. The first phase has a mid-case net present value of 17.5 million pounds ($21.7 million), it added. The oil produced at the site will be sold to a domestic refinery. The new well site could produce oil for up for 21 years, the company said on its website. ($1 = 0.8058 pounds) (Reporting b...