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ZURICH — French-Swiss cement maker LafargeHolcim said on Monday its chief executive Eric Olsen is stepping down following an internal investigation into the company’s activities in Syria. 

His resignation will be effective on July 15, LafargeHolcim said in a statement, adding that its board had agreed to his departure even though an internal probe had determined he was not responsible for any wrongdoings. 

Olsen’s departure follows an inquiry into the indirect financing by Lafarge of armed groups in civil war-ravaged Syria to keep one of its cement plants operational. 

“My decision is driven by my conviction that it will contribute to addressing strong tensions that have recently arisen around the Syria case,” said Olsen. 

“While I was absolutely not involved in, nor even aware of, any wrongdoings I believe my departure will contribute to bringing back serenity to a company that has been exposed for months on this case,” he added. 

‘Unacceptable practices’ 

Last month, LafargeHolcim admitted that it had resorted to “unacceptable practices” to continue operations at one of its now-closed factories in Syria, and on Monday it said an internal probe had confirmed that finding. 

The admission came after sources close to the case told AFP in January that the French government had filed a legal complaint against Lafarge for buying oil in Syria to power the Jalabiya factory, in violation of sanctions. 

French cement maker Lafarge bought the factory in 2007 and invested some $680 million to get it working by 2010, representing the biggest foreign investment in the country outside the petroleum sector. 

The plant, located in northern Syria some 150 kilometres northeast of Aleppo, was finally evacuated in 2014, and closed down before Lafarge merged with its Swiss competitor Holcim in 2015. 

Lafarge is suspected of sourcing oil locally to operate the factory in defiance of a 2012 EU ban on purchases of Syrian oil as part of a sanctions package targeting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. 

According to an investigative piece published in French daily Le Monde last June, Lafarge entered into deals with armed groups in Syria, including the Daesh terror group, to protect its business interests there. 

On Monday, LafargeHolcim published findings from an independent, internal investigation into the plant, commissioned by its board. 

“A number of measures taken to continue safe operations at the Syrian plant were unacceptable, and significant errors of judgement were made that contravened the applicable code of conduct,” it said. 

“The findings also confirm that, although these measures were instigated by local and regional management, selected members of group management were aware of circumstances indicating that violations of Lafarge’s established standards of business conduct had taken place,” it added. 

It stressed though that its internal investigation had “concluded that Eric Olsen was not responsible for, nor thought to be aware of, any wrongdoings that have been identified as part of its review.”

Never again 

The company, which said it would begin searching for Olsen’s successor “immediately”, said it had taken “remedial measures”, including the creation of an “Ethics, Integrity and Risk Committe” to strengthen and enhance compliance with its ethics rules. 

Chairman of LafargeHolcim’s board Beat Hess, who is set to temporarily take over the chief executive seat after Olsen’s departure, stressed on Monday that “we are absolutely committed to ensuring that events like those that occurred in Syria must never happen again at LafargeHolcim”. 

AMMAN — The general assembly of the Housing Bank for Trade and Finance (HBTF) on Sunday approved the distribution of 30 per cent in dividends, in accordance with the board’s recommendation.

The decision was announced during an ordinary meeting of the general assembly which also approved the board of directors’ report, the financial statements of 2016 and the future plan for 2017 at the meeting, according to a bank statement.

It elected the board of directors for the next session, the statement added.

Also, during an extraordinary meeting on Sunday, the general assembly approved

bringing up its capital by 25 per cent to become JD315 million.

Highlighting the bank’s achievements for 2016, Abdul Ilah Khatib who chaired the two meetings, pointed out that the bank’s profit during 2016 exceeded that of the previous year.

Its pre-tax profit amounted to JD190.3 million, marking an increase of JD13.3 million or 7.5 per cent over the previous year, he noted.

The bank’s net profit after tax amounted to JD131 million, with an increase of JD6.3 million or 5 per cent over that of the previous year. 

Khatib said the bank’s group achieved growth in most items of the balance sheet; total assets reached JD7.8 billion, while customer deposits amounted to JD5.6 billion. The total direct credit facilities increased to reach JD4.3 billion at the end of 2016. Total equity is about JD1.1 billion. 

These results positively reflected on several key performance indicators, enhancing the bank’s financial strength, solvency and capital base, besides the quality and safety of its credit and investment portfolios, according to the bank’s statement. 

WASHINGTON — It is "urgent" to reach an agreement on a loan programme for Greece, but a commitment is still required from Athens on reforms and from Europe on debt relief, a senior International Monetary Fund (IMF) official said on Friday. 

"It is urgent that we agree on a programme and that we conclude these discussions because it's taking a toll on the Greek economy," Poul Thomsen, head of the IMF's European department, said. 

"There is no doubt about that, it's serious," he told reporters.

Talks between Greece, the IMF and the eurozone have dragged on for many months. But Athens needs a fresh infusion of funds soon to make its debt payments due in July. 

Despite pressure from European heavyweight Germany, the IMF so far has refused to participate in the 86 billion euro loan programme the eurozone agreed with Greece in mid-2015, the third since 2010, largely over the issue of the nation's debt sustainability. 

On the reform side, while some outstanding issues remain, Thomsen said "good progress" has been made with the Greek authorities in recent weeks, including on budget issues. An IMF mission will be back in Athens "next week".

Budget surplus

Greece announced on Friday a budgetary surplus (excluding debt charges) of 3.9 per cent of GDP in 2016, in line with a target set by Europeans. 

European Commissioner Pierre Moscovici welcomed the result. 

"This should contribute to the will for the steps that lie ahead to find a lasting and comprehensive solution," he said on the sidelines of the IMF Spring meeting.

French Economy Minister Michel Sapin also was optimistic about a deal.

"I am quite confident that we will find, with the IMF and Germany, a solution that will help Greece and thus the EU to stabilise the situation," he told AFP. 

Thomsen, however, said disagreements persist over the period of time in which Athens will have to meet the surplus objective, which the IMF considers too ambitious. 

The eurozone says Greece can deliver a primary surplus of 3.5 per cent of GDP in 2018, but the IMF has said only 1.5 per cent is feasible.

The IMF also needs more clarification from Europe on the how it will implement the promised debt relief for Greece, he said.

If these two issues are resolved, the IMF will be able to participate financially in the aid plan, as it did in 2010 and 2012, Thomsen said. 

IMF chief Christine Lagarde on Friday met with Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and she had "constructive" discussions, but did not provide further details.

She has stressed that the fund cannot participate in any loan programme unless the debt level of the country is considered sustainable.

El Kef, Tunisia — Thousands protested in northeastern Tunisia on Thursday to mark a general strike over unemployment and poverty, six years since a revolution ignited by similar grievances.

Demonstrators gathered at the local branch of the powerful UGTT trade union in Kef, 180 kilometres west of Tunis, before marching down the main streets.

“Work, freedom, dignity!” they shouted. “Kef has the right to development!”

They denounced the government over “broken promises” to develop the region. 

“This demonstration and strike are important, raising a cry of anger in the face of a situation that cannot last,” teacher Rached Salhi said.

Government offices, private companies, shops and cafes were closed and shuttered. Only hospitals, pharmacies and bakeries remained open.

Kamel Saihi, deputy chief of the UGTT’s regional office, said governments had marginalised the northeastern region.

“It has been ignored by successive governments since the revolution and [current Prime Minister] Youssef Chahed did the same thing,” he said.

Similar protests have rocked other parts of Tunisia in recent weeks, including the southern province of Tataouine and the central region of Kairouan. 

The Kef protests were triggered by rumours that a major factory there was set to be relocated to Hammamet, a more developed coastal region.

Six years since a revolution that toppled longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has not been able to resolve the issues that sparked the uprising — including poverty, unemployment and corruption. 

Last year saw major protests in the impoverished region of Kasserine following the death of a young person during a demonstration over unemployment.

In October, protesters in the central region of Gafsa shut down two key phosphate mines in a weeks-long dispute over jobs.

ABU DHABI — The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is confident that production cuts agreed with non-members to prop up prices will lead to a recovery in the market, its chief said on Wednesday.

"We are optimistic that the policy measures we have taken already place us on the path of recovery," OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo said at an energy forum in Abu Dhabi.

OPEC members agreed in November to cut production by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) for six months beginning from the start of the year. 

Some non-cartel producers, led by Russia, joined in December by committing to cut output by 558 million bpd.

The OPEC chief did not take a position on whether oil ministers from participating countries would extend the cuts when they meet in Vienna next month.

"These 24 countries, I believe, will take a decision that will be in the best interest of not only producers, but also consumers and the global industry in general," he said.

OPEC and non-OPEC producers said after talks in Kuwait last month that they were looking into extending the output cuts, as compliance with the agreement has increased.

UAE Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei told reporters at the forum that it was "still premature to make any decision" on the cuts.

"The market is correcting itself. So far we have not seen huge fluctuation in the price, which is a good thing," he said.

"We want stability in the market," he added.

Barkindo said the joint action has put OPEC and other producers in the "driving seat" to dictate events instead of "reacting to market developments".

The cuts were agreed to help restore market stability "by addressing one variable, which is stock", he said.

"As a result of the rising stock over the past years, the equation has gone out of balance."

All producers taking part in the cuts are committed to restoring stability, he said.

Oil prices have dropped by around half since 2014 and currently hover just above $50 per barrel.

DUBAI — Economic growth in Saudi Arabia and most other Arab oil exporters will slow this year following production cuts aimed at propping up energy prices, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Tuesday.

In its latest World Economic Outlook report, the IMF cut its 2017 growth forecast for the region comprising the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan to 2.6 per cent, down from the 3.1 per cent projected in January.

“The subdued pace of expansion reflects lower headline growth in the region’s oil exporters, driven by the November 2016 OPEC agreement to cut oil production,” the Washington-based IMF said.

It “masks the expected pickup in non-oil growth as the pace of fiscal adjustment to structurally lower oil revenues slows,” the IMF added, referring to measures to cut budget deficits.

Members of the OPEC cartel of oil exporters, mostly from the region, agreed last year to reduce output by 1.2 million barrels per day from January 1 for six months, to support crude prices that had shed half of their value since mid-2014.

“Growth in Saudi Arabia, the region’s largest economy, is expected to slow to 0.4 per cent in 2017 because of lower oil production and ongoing fiscal consolidation, before picking up to 1.3 per cent in 2018,” the IMF said. 

It said that growth is likely to dip in most Gulf Cooperation Council member states, which also include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

One bright spot is gas-rich Qatar which is expected to register 3.4-per cent growth this year, compared with 2.7 per cent in 2016. Kuwait’s economy, in contrast, is forecast to shrink by 0.2 per cent.

In Algeria, the IMF sees economic growth of 1.4 per cent this year, down from 4.2 per cent last year.

Growth is also predicted to slow sharply in Iran, to 3.3 per cent in 2017, from 6.5 per cent last year when the Islamic republic won a boost from the lifting of economic sanctions.

Iraq’s economy is expected to contract by 3.1 per cent in 2017 after surging by 10.1 per cent last year on the back of expanding oil exports after sharp contractions in the previous two years. 

Egypt reforms ‘to deliver’ 

The overall figure for the region overshadows a faster pace in many of its oil-importing countries.

Morocco’s economic growth is forecast to jump from 1.5 per cent last year to 4.4 per cent this year, while Tunisia’s economy is seen expanding by 2.5 per cent compared with just one per cent the year before.

On the other hand Egypt, whose currency plummeted in value after authorities floated it in November, will see slower growth of 3.5 per cent this year, compared to 4.3 per cent last year.

“In Egypt, comprehensive reforms are expected to deliver sizable growth dividends, lifting growth ... to 4.5 per cent in 2018,” it said.

The IMF, whose forecasts exclude war-torn Syria, noted that “continued strife and conflict in many countries in the region also detract from economic activity”.

Meanwhile, a “broad-based recovery is expected to continue at a healthy pace” in Pakistan, the IMF said, forecasting growth of 5 per cent this year, and 5.2 per cent in 2018, “supported by ramped-up infrastructure investment”.

BERLIN — Miko from Berlin may only be five, but he already has 1,000 euros ($1,063) per month to live on — not from hard graft, but as part of an experiment into universal basic income.

He is one of 85 people, including around 10 children, chosen by startup Mein Grundeinkommen (My Basic Income) to receive the payments for a year since 2014.

Founder Michael Bohmeyer has set out to prove to a sceptical public in Germany and further afield that the universal basic income (UBI) idea is workable.

"Thanks to my first startup, I got a regular income; my life became more creative and healthy. So I wanted to launch a social experiment," 31-year-old Bohmeyer told AFP.

He wasn't alone in his desire to test the idea, as some 55,000 donors have stumped up the cash for the payments in a "crowdfunding" model — with the final recipients picked out in a "wheel of fortune" event livestreamed online.

Mother Birgit Kaulfuss said little Miko "can't really understand, but for the whole family it was exhilarating" when he was chosen — offering a chance to live "in a more relaxed way" and take a first-ever family holiday.

Trying things out

"Everyone sleeps more soundly and no one becomes a layabout," Bohmeyer said of his beneficiaries.

Recipients' experiences range from a welcome spell without financial worries to major turning points in their lives.

"Without day-to-day pressures, you can be more creative and try things out," Valerie Rupp told public broadcaster ARD in a recent interview.

She was able both to take care of her baby and start a career as a decorator — even as her husband, newly arrived from Mali, was taking German lessons.

Winners have left jobs that were doing little more for them than put bread on the table to become teachers, taken time out to address chronic illness, broken alcohol addiction, taken care of loved ones, or paid for children's studies.

"It's at once a gift and a prompt" to make a change, explained Astrid Lobeyer, who used the money to give eulogies at funerals and studied the therapeutic Alexander technique, a method for relieving stress in the muscles. 

Bohmeyer's experiment has fascinated social media and boosted discussion about a universal income in Germany.

At the same time, Finland is testing the idea with 2,000 homeless recipients and the idea is a flagship policy for French Socialist presidential candidate Benoit Hamon.

Reward for laziness? 

In 2009, the German parliament flatly rejected a petition from some 50,000 Germans demanding a universal income.

Nevertheless, some 40 per cent of the public still think it's a good idea, according to a survey last June by pollsters Emnid.

Supporters have formed a campaign group called "Buendnis Grundeinkommen" (Basic income federation) with their sights on September's legislative elections, but so far no major party has taken up the cause.

There are pockets of support among left-wingers, the right, Catholic organisations and even industry leaders, whose reasoning ranges from fighting poverty to simplifying bureaucracy or smoothing the transition into the digital era.

Resistance to the idea is more focused, centering on how UBI would change people's relationship to work.

Right-wingers dismiss it as a "reward for laziness", while the Social Democratic Party worried in 2006 about unemployed recipients being "labelled useless" rather than getting help to find jobs.

Meanwhile, major unions like IG Metall and Verdi denounce the idea as a "liberal Trojan horse" that would "boost inequality" by paying millionaires and poor people alike.

 Thankless jobs 

Mein Grundeinkommen is "poorly thought out" as a response to broader social questions, University of Freiburg economist Alexander Spermann told AFP.

The startup's 20 employees eat up "60 per cent of the budget", founder Michael Bohmeyer admits — while the idea of basing the funding on curiosity or activism by thousands of donors is hardly applicable on a large scale.

For Spermann, the Berliners' experiment has only succeeded in answering the question "what would I do with a blank cheque if I got one for Christmas?"

People's choices in terms of qualifications or work if they were guaranteed the payments for life are the real mystery, the economist argues.

"Who will take on the exhausting and sometimes less attractive tasks, like emptying bins or taking care of the elderly?" asked Werner Eichhorst of the Bonn Centre for the Future of Work in 2013.

UBI supporters argue such jobs would either be taken over by robots or find a new place of honour in society if the policy were enacted.

"No machine will take over working for us and pay our taxes at the same time," Eichhorst and opponents shoot back.

SINGAPORE/SYDNEY — A company built around the research of Craig Wright, who has claimed to have invented the bitcoin cryptocurrency, has been sold to a private equity firm in a deal the company says is the biggest to date involving bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology.

The deal swings the spotlight once again on to Wright, a 46-year-old computer scientist who is the cryptocurrency's most controversial figure. He hopes to remain central to the technology's future, telling Reuters the goal is to build bitcoin into a global "system with no ruler, no king".

"We will scale and grow bitcoin to become what it was envisioned to be," he said. "All I do is to help grow the use of bitcoin, and I want to see it in daily use by at least a billion people on-chain. We have the funds, the people and the technology to do this."

According to a news release on Thursday, Malta-based High Tech Private Equity Fund SICAV plc. bought nChain Holdings, "the world leader in blockchain-centric research and development". It put no value on the deal and did not mention Wright.

Reuters previously identified nChain, formerly known as EITC Holdings, as Wright's vehicle for filing hundreds of bitcoin and blockchain-related patents.

UK records confirm that the target company — under both its EITC and nChain names — already filed more than 80 bitcoin and blockchain-related patents.

A person close to the deal said $300 million had been invested in nChain, but it was not clear over what period of time.

The Maltese fund did not respond to emails asking for comment.

Reuters reported last year that EITC planned to file hundreds of patents related to blockchain, the distributed ledger technology that underpins cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. The financial industry and others are exploring its potential.

The fund is managed by Liechtenstein-based Accuro Fund Solutions, part of Zurich-based Accuro Group. 

Divisive figure 

Wright remains a divisive figure in the bitcoin world.

After failing to convince many in the bitcoin community that he was Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous founder of bitcoin, Wright retreated from view last year. 

Reuters reported last month that Wright was working with Calvin Ayre, a Canadian online gambling tycoon, to build a patent portfolio, though its purpose was not clear. Ayre was not immediately available for comment.

nChain said in an e-mailed response to questions from Reuters that neither Ayre nor Wright had a stake in it before or after the sale. It said the company previously acquired Wright's assets and intellectual property, and he now held the post of chief scientist.

Although it was not possible to confirm Wright's identity as Nakamoto, a Reuters investigation found he was deeply involved in the early development of bitcoin, and had told Australian tax officials he possessed more than 1 million bitcoin — worth $1.2 billion at the current exchange rate.

Patent lawyers have noted that open-source technologies like bitcoin are not easy to patent, and even if patents are approved, they are not always easy to defend.

Thursday's announcement is the first time nChain has publicly acknowledged it is filing patents.

Without confirming how many bitcoins he owns, Wright told Reuters he would never "dump bitcoin".

"I will sell when I do this for goods on a daily basis, or I will go down with it. Past the basics of my family's well-being, all I have is dedicated to building the systems and institutions needed to make bitcoin successful globally," he said.

The news release also shed light on what Wright and nChain might do with its patents. nChain this year "intends to make some of its intellectual property assets available to the blockchain community through open-source software and royalty-free licensing". It invited interested parties to register via email.

nChain's patent filings, seen by Reuters, range from the storage of medical documents to WiFi security. Investors have spent more than $1.5 billion on blockchain and bitcoin start-ups over the past four years, according to CB Insights, an internet research company.

The company said it was also working on software tools and applications to support the growth of blockchain. These include a software to develop applications on the bitcoin blockchain, solutions for bitcoin blockchain scalability, inventions to improve security, on-chain scripting for smart contracts, and a decentralised trading platform that uses autonomous agents.

The company also called for a neutral standards body to be set up to coordinate bitcoin's development.

NEW YORK — The US dollar rose on Thursday, rebounding after a slide that investors considered overdone following remarks by President Donald Trump that the currency was getting too strong and he would prefer the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low.

The greenback and US Treasury yields took a heavy hit after Trump’s comments to The Wall Street Journal, in which he said the strength of the dollar would hurt the economy.

But after losing 0.6 per cent on Wednesday — its biggest one-day fall in more than three weeks — the dollar recovered on Thursday against a basket of major currencies that tracks its value, rising 0.3 per cent.

“Clearly, I think it was oversold yesterday,” said Peter Ng, senior currency trader at Silicon Valley Bank in Santa Clara, California. “The market was very sensitive to headlines given how nervous it has become due to geopolitical risk.”

Trading was also thinner than usual because of the impending Good Friday holiday in the US and Europe this week, Ng said. 

Having hit a five-month low of 108.73 yen in early Asian trading, the dollar steadied at 109.20 yen.

“Yes, it was negative what [Trump] said...but it’s not a big surprise — it wasn’t a U-turn in his rhetoric on the exchange rate so far,” said Commerzbank currency strategist Thu Lan Nguyen in Frankfurt. 

“The question is: Is he able to influence monetary policy in order to get a weaker dollar? That is still an open question.” 

Trump’s remarks went against a long-standing practice of both US Democratic and Republican administrations of refraining from commenting on policy set by the independent Federal Reserve. It is also unusual for a president to talk about the value of the dollar, a subject usually left to the US Treasury secretary.

The dollar has shed 1.7 per cent against the yen so far this week, its fourth week lower against the safe-haven Japanese currency in five, as a rise in tensions in Asia and Europe prompted yen buying.

Investors are concerned about the upcoming French presidential election as well as possible US military action against Syria and North Korea, and an escalation of tensions with Russia. 

The euro fell 0.5 per cent to $1.0619 after touching a one-week high in overnight trading. 

The dollar was little changed against China’s offshore yuan, after falling to a six-day low on Wednesday. It had risen to a one-month high at the start of the week.

DAHRIYA, Palestinian Territories — Power comes in many forms, but Kamal Al Jebrini's family looked to where others may fear to tread for a new source of it: cow dung.

The family has begun recycling waste from its cows to produce electricity for one of the largest Palestinian dairy plants and even to provide power to some houses.

They discovered the idea during trips abroad and decided cow dung that would otherwise mainly rot in the sun — apart from some used as fertiliser by neighbouring farmers — could be put to better use.

"It was a shame to allow all of that manure to be lost and impact the environment when we can produce electricity with it," said Jebrini, who owns a large farm of about 1,000 cows with his brothers.

He spoke after inspecting the milking room, where workers looked after lumbering cows.

The project in the occupied West Bank is the first of its kind in the Palestinian territories, where renewable energy usually means solar panels.

The family turned to Maher Magalsay, who specialises in renewable energy at the Polytechnic University of Hebron, the major city located nearby in the south of the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel for 50 years.

Magalsay brought engineers and a large generator from Germany to develop the project that involves using heat to produce methane and biogas from the cow dung, eventually leading to electricity.

He involved his students, including some ex-students who had done apprenticeships abroad.

Now, he proudly shows off two large silos where manure and biogas are stocked to be later cooled and transformed.

It allows the 30 tonnes of dung produced daily by Jebrini's cows to generate 380 kilowatt hours.

Let there be light

That's enough to no longer have to pay electricity bills for his company, which sells milk, yoghurt and other dairy products throughout the West Bank and Jerusalem, said Jebrini.

He can even route part of the energy produced to the local electricity company.

There is no power plant in the West Bank, and nearly 90 per cent of the 5.3 gigawatts of energy consumed are bought from Israel.

For certain regions, the bills are taken care of by local authorities or the Palestinian Authority.

When unpaid bills have stacked up, Israel has cut power to cities.

Israeli authorities have long called for the payment of debt for electricity provided to the West Bank and east Jerusalem that they estimate to be some $475 million (450 million euros).

At the same time, around 4 per cent of Palestinian villages are not connected to the electricity grid, according to official data. 

Most of the villages are in the Hebron area — making Jebrini's project even more relevant and an example to be shared.

It certainly doesn't seem to trouble the cows and calves who munch straw under sheet metal roofs.

Their owners hope to do even more.

"In the next phase, we are going to use another generator to produce 650 kilowatt hours, and over the long-term we will reach one megawatt hour," said Magalsay.

With that amount, "we could supply between 200 and 300 houses," he said.