The latest financial news from Israel, Mongolia, India, Finland, Canada, The Netherlands, Singapore, Britain, Brazil, Switzerland, Japan, and Australia:

*Our Barrick Gold Yankee bond (cusip 06849RAF9), the 4.4% of May 30, 2021 continues to flourish. We wait for it to be upgraded.

*Our Mongol play is a real estate developer, Mongolian Growth Group, MNGGF which is up nicely today but still about 40% below what we paid for it. This is high-risk terrifying territory and I refuse to average down.

*IAMGold, IAG, has suspended its dividend until further notice. It is aiming to cut its costs by $100 mn to match the lower gold price and conserve capital. It has $750 mn in undrawn unsecured credit facilities from its banks--but not for shareholders.

*Liberty Global Media is back on the prowl to buy up Ziggo nv, a Dutch broadband co in which LBTYA/LBTYK owns c30% already. Ziggo earlier this year turned down an offer for a full takeover and the Ziggo stock has risen by a quarter since then.

*Nokia was ordered by an Indian court to deposit 22.4 bn rupees ($365 mn) to undo the sequester of its Chennai factory in a tax dispute. NOK will comply to enable its sale of its mobile phone business toMicrosoft to go forward. It will close in Q1 next year.

*Bombardier and the Canada firm's Brazilian archrival Embraer shared the first order for new jets from post-merger American Airlines Group for 76-seaters but ERJ got an order for 60 planes and BDRAF one for only 30.

*Our Japanese game site DeNA with addictive members has fallen well below the level at which I am prepared to sell it, off nearly 10% given its spread. So we will not say Sayonara to in DNACF as well as its Tokyo version JP:2432.

*Teva is one of the generic producers taking on Eli Lilly's Cymbaltia (duloxetine) against depression along with a bunch of Indian firms fighting to share out the market worth $5 bn/yr to LLY.

However an immune checkpoint receptor drug from CureTech of Israel, pidilizumab, that was dumped from TEVA's pipeline by ex-CEO Dr. Jeremy Levin at a cost of $1-9 mn turns out to be a hot number. A report by the investigator at the U of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center says it produced a complete response against lymphoma-myelonoma in 52% with none of the averse side effects of rival drugs. This was reported by drug blog FiercePharma.com today. The battle for control of Teva is generating damaging revelations on both Dr Levin and Chairman Dr Phillip Frost.

Dr Frost's Opko was attacked in the Israeli-based seekingalpha.com website and Patti the biotech maven commented that the article's "assessment of OPK was fair and Dr. Frost's constant purchases to bolster the stock price suspicious."

Separate from the press battle Fitch Ratings downgraded Teva Phram bonds to BBB+ from A- citing among other factors the impact on cashflow of its early loss of Copaxone patents, its having overpaid for Cephalon, and "material execution risk" of its "Reshape" program 'by the firm's current lack of a permanent CEO."

*Thanks to its partnership signed last year with Merck KGA, Dr Reddy's Lab (RDY) of India is getting ready to offer copycat biological drugs like Roche's Rituxan. RDY also is among the cymbalta rivals. 

*GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will benefit from a peer-reviewed study of its FluLaval 4-strain flu injection in children 3 to 8 published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Kiddies who got the jab had over 55% fewer flu cases and a 73% lower risk of developing moderate to severa cases of flu. This was the first gold-standard trial on vaccinating children with a 4-strain flu vaccine now approved for US children by our FDA but not in other countries. GSK.

*To get a better handle on what lies under the Mediterranean waters in the Leviathan concession, Noble Energy and Delek Group (DGRLY) may lease a rig from Saipem SpA which will be working in Cypriot waters on behalf of fellow-Italian ENI until April. This will avoid using an Atwood Advantage drillship leased by NBL. But everything depends on Israeli permits. Reported by Globes Israel, this trial balloon is a signal to Jerusalem that trying to go it alone and not allowing further drilling beyond the single one allowed at Leviathan which would be very costly, as much as $75 mn for one hole. 

*Jonathan Weil in Bloomberg granted Royal Bank of Scotland the "Dumbest Bank of the Year Award." Despite being 82% owned by the British govt it has to pay $100 mn in US fines for sneak transactions violating sanctions to send money to Iran, Sudan, Cuba, and (then) Myanmar. We own the preferreds for yield.

*Global Logistic Properties did a complex and non-material deal to reduce its stake in a Brazilian LP, Fundo de Investimento em Participações to 40%. The Singapore REIT and the Brazilian LP are both controlled by the Govt of Singapore's sovereign wealth fund (GIC) with others: Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and China Investment Corp.

*Chicago Bridge & Iron was downrated by Johnson Rice analysts from "focus list" to overweight. CBI yesterday issued its first forecasts for 2014 during its investor day here and confirmed that it expects revenues next year to hit $12.6-13.2 bn. Its adjusted EPS will be $4.80 to $5.65, still excluding $15-25 mn in acquisition and integration costs related to its buyout of Shaw. These are offset in part by $6-9 mn in tax benefits, or 0.10-0.15/share. We got into CBI via SHAW.

*While his Australian gas play Origin Energy is now under what we paid for it, Martin Ferara is happy with OGFGF because its liquefaction jv project is only (!) 15% over budget and on schedule. However its Oz rivals like Chevron face much larger cost overruns and delays.

*Based on the Colombia sovereign re-rating, Fitch upped its rating of Ecopetrol foreign and peso bonds to BBB and BBB+ from BBB- and BBB. By convention a company from a foreign country cannot have a higher bond rating than the country itself because a country can always print money. But because Colombia controls over 88% of EC, the two are rated the same.

*Worryingly, Zurich Insurance is planning to refurbish its HQ in Zurich, Switzerland on Mythenquai 2. Work will begin in 2016 on a project plan from Architekt Krischnitz ZT GmbH. Redoing your HQ building often tips companies into the red.

*Reckitt Benckiser director Adrian Hennah bought GBP 629,000 worth of RBGLY stock.

*Macquarie First Trust Global Infranstructure Fund, MFD, declared a 35 cents quarterly dividend. It is trading at $16.58 so the yield is 8.4%.