BRUSSELS: Belgium will unblock Russian embassy accounts that had been frozen over legal claims by shareholders of former oil company Yukos, the EU country’s foreign minister said on Saturday, after Moscow vowed retaliation. “A solution has been found to unblock as a priority accounts for the running of the embassies, and the rest will follow,” a ministry spokesman told AFP, quoting Foreign Minister Didier Reynders. Accounts held at ING Bank by Russia’s embassy to Belgium as well as the country’s representative offices to the European Union and NATO are among those to be unfrozen first, said the Spokesman Henrik Van de Velde. Moscow had threatened on Friday to retaliate against state-linked foreign firms operating in Russia after its official assets were frozen, with President Vladimir Putin saying ‘we will defend our interests’.

Apple’s revamped app

WASHINGTON: Apple is diving deeper into the news business with a new application that could make the US tech giant a key industry player. Apple News, part of the upcoming iOS 9 operating system, aims to be the primary news source for users of the iPhone and iPad — likely at the expense of sources such as Facebook, Google and news apps such as Flipboard. In a surprising move, Apple has unveiled it will be hiring experienced journalists to manage its news feeds — marking a departure from the algorithmic process used by rivals. Although Apple has offered few specifics on its plans, the company’s jobs listing page said it is ‘looking for passionate, knowledgeable editors to help identify and deliver the best in breaking national, global, and local news’.

Africa’s wine market

BORDEAUX: For wine and spirits companies looking to expand their businesses, Africa and its growing middle class clamouring for refined tipples is now one of the world’s fastest-growing beverage markets, analysts say. Wine consumption in Africa is rising five times faster than the global average, according to a study of 24 sub-Saharan African countries released this past week by British wine consultancy IWSR at the world’s leading wine fair, Vinexpo. Africans gulped down a total of 864 million bottles of still light wine in 2013 — a rise of 17.3 per cent in five years. That remains relatively modest for a continent of 1.1 billion people. But the market is forecast to grow another 11 per cent by 2018.