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Turkey's central bank is expected to cut its key interest rate to 12.5% from 14%, a Reuters poll showed on Friday, sustaining an easing cycle designed to revive the economy and bringing real rates below levels in most emerging markets. The central bank has cut rates three times since July, when the policy rate stood at 24% following a currency crisis which knocked nearly a third off the value of the lira last year and pushed Turkey into recession. In a Reuters poll of 20 economists, the median estimate was for a 150-basis point interest rate cut to 12.50%.

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 23:22:16 -0500

China aims to double the amount of water it transfers from the flood-prone south to arid northern regions, officials said on Thursday, as the government prepares to launch the second phase of its controversial cross-country water diversion scheme. The South-North Water Diversion Project was first proposed in 1952 to ease flooding in the south and drought in the north, but critics say its costs are too high and the diversion of polluted water to other regions could contaminate other lakes and rivers. The first phase of the project, completed five years ago, linked the Yangtze and Yellow rivers through two main routes in eastern and central China, with another, more challenging route in the far west still to come.

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 23:09:34 -0500

Hong Kong police said they arrested three people in connection with arson and vandalism in Kowloon late Wednesday. Police also said they received reports that five people threw petrol bombs at a Japanese restaurant on the street level of a shopping mall in Cheung Sha Wan. Police said several other people started a fire at a street junction in Mong Kok, an area that has regularly been the site of violent clashes between protesters and police during more than six months of social unrest in the Chinese-ruled city.

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 22:59:57 -0500

There’s new hope for an endangered California frog that has vanished from half of its habitat. The state Fish and Game Commission on Wednesday approved protections for five of six populations of the foothill yellow-legged frog. The Center for Biological Diversity had sought protection for the stream-dwelling amphibians under California’s Endangered Species Act.

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 22:54:54 -0500

House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler gaveled in a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, kicking off the committee's marathon session to approve two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump for debate and approval, holding a "markup" -- a public meeting where members can debate and offer amendments to the charges -- ahead of a House floor vote next week. "Taken together, these two articles charge President Trump, with placing his private, political interests above our national security, and above our free and fair elections, and above our ability to hold public officials accountable," Nadler said.

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 22:49:00 -0500