The Daily Populous

Thursday November 29th, 2018 morning edition

image for Russian bank: we assigned $12 billion 'loan' to poor African state by mistake

The loan was mentioned in a quarterly VTB financial report published by the Russian central bank.

The report included a table listing the outstanding financial claims that VTB group had on dozens of countries as of Oct. 1 this year.

In the table next to Central African Republic was the sum of 801,933,814,000 rubles ($12 billion) — more than six times the country’s annual economic output.

When asked about the data by Reuters, the bank said the loan to the former French colony did not, in reality, exist.

VTB did not say who was responsible for the mistake or how such a large figure could have been published without being spotted.

CAR government spokesman Ange Maxime Kazagui, when asked about the Russian data, said: “I don’t have that information.

Muscling aside former colonial power France, Moscow has provided arms and contractors to the Central African Republic military, and a Russian national is security advisor to President Faustin-Archange Touadera. »

Netherlands has proof Russia developed prohibited cruise missile

Authored by nltimes.nl

It involves a SSC-8 missile that has a range of over 500 kilometers, which violates the INF treaty, NOS reports.

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed in 1987 between the United States and Russia.

The Dutch Ministers believe that this violation of the INF treaty must be condemned, but also that the treaty must be maintained. »

India has no plans to recover body of US missionary killed by tribe

Authored by theguardian.com

India has no plans to recover body of US missionary killed by tribe.

Indian authorities say they have no plans to recover the body of John Allen Chau, an American missionary who was killed by members of an isolated tribe on a remote island.

“We have not tried to contact them for the past many days, and have decided not to continue trying.”. »

House Democrats Who Haven’t Supported Net Neutrality Yet Have All Taken Money from Telecoms

Authored by motherboard.vice.com

The Democratic members of Congress staying mum on net neutrality have all taken campaign contributions from major telecom companies, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

To be clear, getting a campaign contribution from a telecom company does not preclude one from supporting net neutrality regulations.

The fact that they have also pocketed a few thousand from the same corporations that want to keep net neutrality repealed is worth noting. »