US: Judges get the pip over fruit

Published Apr 23, 2014

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US

Judges get the pip over fruit

Coca-Cola was taken to task by the US Supreme Court on Monday, with judges questioning whether a drink sold as fruit juice was the real thing. The US soft drinks giant is being sued by Californian fruit juice maker Pom Wonderful, which accuses Coca-Cola of misleading consumers about its Minute Maid drink “Pomegranate Blueberry”. Justice Samuel Alito asked Coca-Cola whether consumers “would be very surprised to find… that it has less than one-half of 1 percent of pomegranate juice”. It also contains only 0.5 percent blueberry juice, while the rest is mostly apple or grape. A decision is expected in June. – Sapa-AFP

Rwanda

Standard to sell local bonds

The International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank, has started marketing local currency bonds in Rwanda. The debt would be sold in Rwandan francs and listed on the nation’s bourse, Standard Bank, which is arranging the sale with CfC Stanbic Bank and Bank of Kigali, said yesterday. “The timing and size of the bond will be at the issuer’s discretion,” Standard Bank said. Rwanda is the only east African nation to have issued a eurobond, raising $400 million (R4.2 billion) last year. – Bloomberg

Kenya

Qatar may fuel power station

Kenya would negotiate to import natural gas from Qatar for a power station it wanted built in Mombasa, the president’s office said yesterday. The announcement was made during a visit by President Uhuru Kenyatta to Qatar. Kenya Pipeline “signed a non-disclosure agreement with Qatar Gas to start negotiation” for the supply of 1 million tons a year of liquefied natural gas to Kenya to power the 700 megawatt gas plant, Kenyatta’s office said. It did not say when negotiations were expected to start. – Reuters

Cameroon

Plan to boost private sector

Cameroon has adopted a plan to galvanise its struggling private sector in an effort to raise the economic growth rate to 6 percent this year. “The actions and measures adopted aim at improving the business climate, modernising production machinery, strengthening access and availability of factors of production, fostering access to financing and accelerating industrialisation,” Economy Minister Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi said on Monday. The government also wanted to improve the use of public investments and donor funding. Cameroon’s economy grew 4.8 percent last year. – Reuters

Canada

Teck Resources to cut 600 jobs

Teck Resources, Canada’s largest diversified mining company, would eliminate about 600 jobs worldwide to reduce costs amid lower commodity prices, it said yesterday. It planned to thin the workforce by about 5 percent through attrition, hiring freezes and reductions in contractors. The cost reductions would save about C$200 million (R1.9 billion). – Bloomberg

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