Bloomberg Russia is nearing a decision to double dividends paid by state-owned companies on last year’s profit as the government struggles to cover a widening budget deficit, according to an official at the Federal Property Management Agency. A draft decree on the proposal to raise the payout to a minimum of 50 percent of net income from 25 percent has ...

Bloomberg Norway’s unemployment rate jumped to the highest in more than a decade as a slump in oil prices weighs on an expansion in western Europe’s biggest crude producer. The surveyed unemployment rate jumped to 4.8 percent in January, the highest since at least the start of 2006, from a revised 4.6 percent the previous month, according to Statistics Norway. ...

BRUSSELS / BLOOMBERG Euro-area economic confidence fell to the lowest level in more than a year just as the European Central Bank deployed fresh stimulus to spur growth and quash the threat of deflation. An index of executive and consumer confidence slumped for a third month, declining to 103.0 in March from a revised 103.9 the previous month, the European ...

Bloomberg When it comes to predicting the result of Britain’s EU membership referendum, the telephone surveys showing a lead for the “Remain” side are probably closer to the mark, despite their flaws, according to a study. Polls conducted online that suggest the race is too close to call and those done by phone are all missing important data, but the ...

Geneva / AFP UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday called for greater global efforts to tackle the Syrian refugee crisis, as he opened a conference on securing resettlement places for nearly half a million of those displaced by the five-year conflict. “We are here to address the biggest refugee and displacement crisis of our time,” Ban told the conference in ...

Vietnam / AFP Vietnam jailed three women on Wednesday on charges of spreading anti-state propaganda after they waved the flag of the former US-backed South Vietnam regime, state media said. A court in Ho Chi Minh City found the women guilty of carrying out “propaganda against the socialist Republic of Vietnam,” the official ThanhNien newspaper reported. The trio had waved ...

Bangui / AFP France will end its military intervention in the Central African Republic this year as it has achieved its objectives of restoring security to the country after three years of communal violence, the French defence minister said Wednesday. “I can confirm to you the end of Operation Sangaris during the course of 2016,” Jean-Yves Le Drian said in ...

Naypyidaw / AFP Myanmar entered a new era on Wednesday as Aung San SuuKyi’s democracy movement took power after 50 years of military domination, with a close aide of the Nobel Laureate sworn in as president. HtinKyaw, a school friend and confidante of the democracy champion, succeeds former general TheinSein who has helmed reforms that have transformed Myanmar from hermit ...

Ankara / AFP The European Union backs the European diplomats who attended a controversial trial of two Turkish journalists charged with espionage after their appearance was bitterly attacked by Ankara, an official said on Wednesday. Turkey issued a protest on Monday over comments on social media made by some diplomats present at the trial last week of the opposition Cumhuriyet ...

Paris / AFP French President Francois Hollande said on Wednesday he was scrapping contested constitutional reforms proposed after the Paris attacks, in an embarrassing U-turn for his already beleaguered government. The reforms included a plan to strip convicted terrorists of their French nationality which led to howls of protests from the left flank of his Socialist party. Hollande also wanted ...