Markets flat Friday
NEW YORK, March 23 (UPI) -- U.S. markets were mixed Friday, with blue chips stock rising and the leading technology index falling flat.
The U.S. Census Bureau News said sales of existing homes dropped 1.6 percent January to February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 313,000. In Britain, the Nationwide index of consumer confidence slipped three points to 44. Stock were down Friday across Asia, but higher in Europe.
In early afternoon trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was ahead 36.40 points or 0.28 percent to 13,082.54. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 3.53 points or 0.25 percent to 1,396.31. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index lost 4.43 points or 0.14 percent to 3,058.89.
The benchmark 10-year treasury rose 12/32 to yield 2.244 percent.
The euro rose to $1.3269 from Thursday's $1.3201. Against the yen, the dollar fell to 82.43 yen compared to Thursday's 83.54 yen.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index shed 1.14 percent, 115.61, to 10,011.47.
In London, the FTSE 100 index gained 0.16 percent, 9.24, to 5,854.89.
President picks Jim Kim for World Bank job
WASHINGTON, March 23 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama Friday nominated Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim, to lead the World Bank.
Obama said the Korean-born Kim, whose background is more medical than financial, "has spent more than two decades working to improve conditions in developing countries around the world."
The World Bank's goal is specifically to make loans to help reduce poverty around the world. The current bank president, Robert Zoellick, announced in February he would step down in June.
Kim has been the president of Dartmouth since 2009.
He graduated magna cum laude from Brown University and earned a medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He also has a doctorate degree in anthropology, which he earned at Harvard.
At Dartmouth, he helped found the Center for Health Care Delivery Science, a collaboration between researchers and medical practitioners to create low-cost medical programs. He also helped launch the National College Health Improvement Project. He has worked in numerous medical programs and is considered a pioneer in the treatment of "multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis," the White House said in a statement.
Obama said Kim "does it all."
Kim, who moved to the United States from Korea at the age of 5, was president of his high school class, quarterback on the football team and point guard on the basketball team.
If that wasn't enough, "I just found out he is a 5-handicap in golf," Obama said. "I'm a little resentful about that."
Nigerian villagers sue Shell over spills
LONDON, March 23 (UPI) -- Residents of a Nigerian fishing community squared off against Shell's Nigeria operation in a London courtroom, demanding compensation for recent oil spills.
While the Nigerian unit of Royal Dutch-Shell Group of Cos., based in London, took responsibility for the spill of about 4,000 barrels in the Niger Delta, lawyers representing Bodo residents said the community had to file a lawsuit after negotiations broke down, the BBC reported Friday.
The head of Shell Petroleum Development Co. of Nigeria said lawyers representing claimants made it difficult for the matter to be resolved.
When Shell accepted responsibility last August for spills in 2008 and 2009, it said they were caused by operational failures and promised to clean up the oil, restore the land and pay compensation in accordance with Nigerian law.
Martyn Day, the British attorney representing Bodo residents, said the spills devastated a once-thriving fishing community of about 50,000 people.
"I've been around Bodo on a number of occasions and you just have to walk round. It looks like a World War I scene, where the oil has totally destroyed much of the local environment and the fish ... have basically disappeared from the area," he told the BBC.
Shell has argued that much more oil was spilled because of illegal activity in the Niger Delta, such as sabotage and theft.
Mutiu Sunmonu, managing director of the Nigerian operation, said understanding the "the complexities of the Niger Delta" was key when considering compensation.
"We did do everything possible to make sure that we pay compensation to the affected communities, but we also have to make sure that this compensation is paid to the right people," Sunmonu said. "The trouble is you cannot do that as long as [different] lawyers are representing them."
Canada's cost of living up 2.6 percent
OTTAWA, March 23 (UPI) -- Prices for gasoline and electricity helped drive Canada's overall cost of living up 2.6 percent on an annual basis in February, Statistics Canada said Friday.
Prices rose in seven of the eight major Consumer Price Index components in February on the heels of a 2.5 percent rise in January.
Gas prices were 8.9 percent higher than a year earlier and electricity cost 8.7 percent more, the report said.
Overall food prices were 4.1 percent higher. Within that component, prices for meat rose 7.1 percent and bread prices were up by 7.2 percent in February, StatsCan said.
Transportation costs were also higher, largely because of gas prices, but car insurance, car purchase prices and airline travel costs were also higher, the agency said.
The CPI rose in all 10 provinces and was at or above the national average in the east and lower in the west, the report said.
