At first, Genoil plans to invest $15 billion into projects in Russia’s southern republic of Chechnya. The company will explore ways to link the new project to existing pipeline networks in the region.

“We have good ties to Chinese investors, we are ready to invest into infrastructure development, and we believe that it’s possible to increase oil production in Russia by this,” a company representative said as quoted by Vedomosti daily.

“First of all, money will be invested into developing reservoirs in the republic to create a refinery with a capacity of 3-6 million tons of oil,” said Grozneft chairman Andrey Gusak, stressing that the investors may consider buying mining assets in other regions of the country.

Russia’s Economic Development Ministry hasn’t reportedly received any documents concerning the deal.
The project has raised doubts among the experts, interviewed by the daily.

“Genoil is an unknown company, while the sum is huge. Moreover, it may be equitable to the annual capital cost of the whole Russia’s fuel and energy sector,” said Valery Nesterov, analyst to Sberbank CIB.

Using Chinese capital, the company plans to invest into something that does not have economic sense, according to the head of Urus Advisory in Moscow.

“The Chinese do not need Canadians to enter the Russian market: they have ties, resources and business skills,” the analyst said.

The list of China's richest people is issued annually by the Shanghai-based Hurun Report, led by British accountant Rupert Hoogewerf. The ranking targets Chinese businesspeople with total assets of more than 2 billion yuan. This year, the number of eligible individuals topped 2,000 for the first time.

Heads of property and internet businesses dominated the top spots. Jack Ma Yun, executive chairman of online shopping giant Alibaba Group Holding, was second richest, and Pony Ma Huateng, CEO of internet giant Tencent Holdings, was third.

Wang Jianlin has built a number of shopping malls and theme parks in China while expanding his realm aggressively through buying companies including American film studios. His business appears to be struggling with financing recently, but the Wang family's assets exceeded even those of Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong's richest man, who runs the conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings.

Jack Ma Yun, executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding
Ma's assets, meanwhile, increased more than 40% in the past year, largely thanks to the successful 30 billion yuan fundraising by Ant Financial Services Group, Alibaba's online payment affiliate, earlier this year. The steady growth of Alibaba shares on the New York Stock Exchange also contributed.

Most of the richest individuals expanded their assets through mergers, acquisitions or fundraising. Alibaba, for example, obtained a stake in Didi Chuxing, China's leading ride-hailing service, in addition to investing in some startups.

Tencent bought Finnish gaming developer Supercell. The value of Tencent shares in the Hong Kong market has grown to 2 trillion Hong Kong dollars ($257 billion), closely behind Alibaba, China's No. 1 company in terms of market capitalization.

Despite a 15% increase in his assets, Robin Li, the founder and chief executive of search engine provider Baidu, fell to eighth place on the list. This was partly due to a slump in Baidu's shares due to criticism over the search platform's inappropriate handling of medical ads. Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, China's top three conglomerates, are often referred to collectively by the acronym BAT, but the gap between Li's business and the other two appears to be widening.

The stock market in China crashed last year, and the value of the Chinese currency has fallen about 10% since the beginning of 2014. As the country's economy struggles, the growth pace of the richest men's assets has also slowed, averaging 7%.

Chinese markets are extremely volatile because they're dominated by mom-and-pop investors who tend to follow trends, herd into stocks and then get skittish.
The country's second-largest index, the Shenzhen Composite, is prone to even wilder swings. It's up 30% from its January low.
Charlie Awdry, a fund manager at Henderson Global Investors who specializes in Chinese equities, said the new bull market resulted from a "stealth drift up" over the past few months rather than a sudden surge.
Trading volumes -- the number of shares traded each day -- are still pretty low, he said.
china shanghai composite index
Chinese investors are getting back into the market and bidding shares higher as they divert their money away from an overheated housing market that's becoming less and less affordable.
The government recently moved to cool the market by introducing restrictions on purchases, and some investors have reacted by moving their money into stocks, said Awdry.
Government spending on infrastructure projects and lending by state banks have also played a part in the stock market recovery.
The stimulus measures are being taken to support China's slowing economy, which is growing by 6.7% annually. That may sound fast, but it's much slower than the double-digit growth seen in previous years.

The start of the bull market in China comes immediately after Donald Trump's election win in the U.S., which helped the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit an all-time high on Thursday.
But experts say there's no connection to the presidential election.
"[Chinese investors are] probably watching the fact that Trump [was elected to be] President... but that's really not occupying much mindshare as they're trading this market," said Awdry. "They are dancing to a different tune than everyone else."

The pact, signed on Friday in Tokyo by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi , marked the first time Japan agreed to such a deal with a country that is not a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Critics in Japan, the victim of US atomic bombings in the final days of World War II, have previously raised concerns about a risk of the country's technology being diverted to India's nuclear weapons programme.

Yet, the deal is limited to peaceful commercial use, and Tokyo cam terminate it if India conducts a nuclear test.

The pact allows India to reprocess fuel and enrich uranium, though highly enriched uranium that can be used to make nuclear weapons is not permitted without written agreement by Japan.

India's Nuclear Riddle - People & Power
Abe and Modi insisted the agreement will contribute to peaceful use of clean energy.

"This agreement sets a legal framework to assure that India acts responsibly for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy," Abe said, adding that it gets India to effectively participate in the non-proliferation treaty framework.

"It is also in line with Japan's position to promote non-proliferation to create a world without nuclear weapons."

Abe's pro-business government seeks to export nuclear power plants to counter shrinking sales at home since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, and has discussed similar deals with Vietnam and Turkey.

Modi praised the signing as "a historic step in our engagement to build a clean energy partnership" that will help India to "combat the challenge of climate change".

Anti-nuclear groups denounced the agreement, citing threats to safety and regional peace and increased risk of proliferation.

"There is no effective separation between India’s nuclear energy programme and its weapons programme, and the Japanese government’s agreement conditions are meaningless," Shaun Burnie, a senior nuclear specialist at Greenpeace Japan, said in a statement .

"Approving nuclear trade with India is a geo-strategic decision to support further nuclear weapons proliferation in Asia."

The women of Fukushima, an anti-nuclear lobbying group, have issued an appeal to Modi to visit the disaster area and see at first hand the consequences of nuclear power.

"Nuclear power plants will not bring happiness to your citizens," the group said in an open letter.

"We who experienced the injury of the nuclear accident, we came to understand this through our own bodies and lives."

Energy-hungry India wants to increase nuclear power generation to support its strong economic growth. The country has signed similar nuclear agreements with France, Russia, Britain and the United States.

Several US media outlets said on Friday that Obama administration officials acknowledged the TPP deal has no way forward in the remaining days of his presidency, which ends in January.

They say opposition to the multilateral trade deal by president-elect Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers has effectively killed its chances.

White House official Ben Rhodes said on Friday that President Obama is planning to meet with leaders of TPP member countries when they gather at an APEC summit starting next Saturday in Peru.

Obama is likely to press home the importance of the economic and security implications of the trade pact.

Some countries are proposing negotiations for a new economic agreement that excludes the United States.

"Why Is Facebook Saying I'm Dead?" asked the New York Times' Katie Rogers. "At first, I was indignant. I was definitely not dead. Then I thought I had been hacked. Then I asked a few of my colleagues. Also dead."
"Facebook is capping one of the longest weeks in American history by telling everyone that they are dead," quipped The Verge, a technology website, in reference to the presidential election.
The memorial feature was introduced by Facebook in 2015 because of a number of high-profile cases where family wanted to access the social accounts of deceased loved ones.
User can opt to have their account turn into a memorial page upon their death, where Facebook contacts can leave message and share memories.
An alternative option is to have your account deleted after your death.

Ms Lagarde said the latest "home-grown economic plan" was intended to tackle the country's large budget deficit, low growth and high unemployment rate.
She said that further reforms, such as reductions in fuel subsidies and legislation to reduce Egypt's public sector wage bill, were necessary for the country to move forward.
"Resolute implementation of the policy package is essential to restore investor confidence," Ms Lagarde said.
In 2013, Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, was ousted by the military, led by Gen Sisi, after only one year in power.
Mr Sisi was later elected president in May 2014.

The State Secretary informed the guests of the commitment of the Government of Mongolia to fulfill its platform of actions, with special accent on the essential economic sectors – mining, infrastructure and constructions.

In turn, Mr Lu Bing, while noting China and Mongolia are important partners for each other, expressed willingness on behalf of his company to cooperate with the Mongolian government on major construction projects.