Bloomberg Volkswagen AG has agreed to set aside at least $10 billion to resolve civil claims by the U.S. government and lawsuits by American car owners over diesel vehicles rigged to cheat pollution controls, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said. The parties reached the accord ahead of a Thursday deadline set by a federal judge for ...

Bloomberg Soybeans extended a rally above $10 a bushel, the highest price since July, and corn traded near $4 a bushel as unfavourable weather in South America and prospects for improved demand for U.S. supplies bolstered agriculture markets. Dryness in Brazil is causing conditions to deteriorate for its second corn crop, and the country suspended import tariffs for the next ...

  Bloomberg Shareholders of oil-rig venture Sete Brasil Participacoes SA agreed to a plan to file for bankruptcy protection after its single client failed to present a viable book order. A Sete Brasil official confirmed that investors are backing the plan and declined to elaborate. Shareholders had set that day as a deadline for Petroleo Brasileiro SA to propose a ...

  Bloomberg Investors who bought bonds in Argentina’s record-breaking sale have made $497 million in profit in just one day. The bonds that were sold for $16.4 billion now have a market value of $16.88 billion as of 4:48 p.m. in New York, according to prices compiled by Bloomberg. The notes, the first overseas debt sold by the country in ...

  Bloomberg West Fraser Timber Co. and Canfor Corp., Canada’s largest lumber producers, are suffering from tepid demand in the U.S. where the recovery in the housing market is stuttering. U.S. housing starts fell a more-than-expected 8.8 percent last month, the Commerce Department said April 19. Housing demand isn’t strong enough to support lumber prices at current levels, according to ...

  Riyadh / AFP US President Barack Obama met Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia on Thursday to push for an intensified campaign against the IS group, despite strains in ties with Washington. Making what is likely his final presidential visit to America’s historic allies, Obama posed for a summit photo with the six regional leaders, including Saudi King Salman, before ...

  JAKARTA / AP China has asked Indonesia to extradite four Uighur men in exchange for returning a graft fugitive recently arrested in Shanghai, the top Indonesian security minister said on Thursday. Coordinating Minister for Politics, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan said Indonesia will allow China to question the men, who are serving prison sentences for collaborating with Indonesia’s ...

  Ankara / AFP Russia has kept a considerable military presence in conflict-torn Syria to bolster the regime of President Bashar Al Assad, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday. “Despite the announced partial withdrawal we see that Russia maintains a considerable military presence in support of the Assad regime in Syria,” he said at a press conference in Turkey. ...

  BEIJING / AP Pointing to stronger China-US cooperation on North Korea, a US envoy said on Thursday the two nations are united in their opposition to the North’s nuclear tests and worked together to develop the tough sanctions imposed in March. Sung Kim, the US government’s top envoy for North Korea, told reporters in Beijing that China took as ...

  Moscow / AFP The last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Thursday urged the West to stop isolating Russia and take a more “constructive” approach in response to President Vladimir Putin’s moves towards normalising relations. The 85-year-old who presided over the breakup of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War argued that Moscow has an “important and ...