Bloomberg Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said 11 “hired assassins” trained in Colombia were offered $50 million to kill him as part of Saturday’s thwarted attack. The suspects were trained in a farm in Chinacota, Colombia, and were planning a July 5 attack that was postponed due to the delayed arrival of the two drones, Maduro said in a televised address ...

Bloomberg Former Zimbabwean Finance Minister Tendai Biti, a leader of the country’s main opposition alliance, was arrested in neighbouring Zambia where he plans to seek asylum, his lawyer said. It’s unclear what Biti has been charged with, Nqobizitha Mlilo said by phone from the Chirundu border post in northern Zimbabwe. Biti fled the country because his life is in danger, ...

Bloomberg Former Malaysian leader Najib Razak pleaded not guilty to charges of money laundering linked to 1MDB as prosecutors alleged more wrongdoing by the ex-premier during his oversight of the state investment fund. Najib was charged with three counts of money laundering breaches related to SRC International Sdn, a former unit of state fund 1MDB. The charges carry a punishment ...

Bloomberg Pakistan will add 60,000 troops to boost its patrols along its disputed border with Afghanistan in an effort to curb the flow of insurgents passing between the two nations, according to military officials familiar with the matter. Forty percent of the troops have already been recruited in the exercise, which is expected to take two years, the officials said, ...

Bloomberg Pressure is building on UK opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn to switch course and back a referendum on whatever Brexit deal the government reaches with the European Union. Labour Party activists are trying to force a debate on the issue at its annual conference in Liverpool next month. If they succeed—and there are still some hurdles—a second plebiscite that could ...

Bloomberg US stocks erased early losses prompted by renewed trade fears as gains in megacap technology shares left major benchmarks little changed. Oil slumped and Treasuries rose. The S&P 500 Index was flat after a four-day advance as Washington and Beijing set dates for new levies on billions in goods. Trading was 20 percent below average. Tech and bank shares ...

Bloomberg The ruble headed for its weakest closing level since November 2016 and Russian stocks and bonds plunged after local media published the full text of a US bill seeking “crushing sanctions” for election meddling. The currency slid 2.2 percent to 64.91 per dollar on Wednesday, sinking the most among major peers and breaking out of a range it’s traded ...

Bloomberg Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Property Trust Inc. agreed to buy a General Electric Co. energy-finance business for $2.56 billion to expand beyond real estate holdings. The acquisition includes a roughly $2.1 billion portfolio of 51 loans backed by assets such as pipelines, power plants and wind farms, as well as $400 million of unfunded commitments, Starwood and GE said in ...

Bloomberg Centrica Plc raised its price for power and gas for a second time this year, citing soaring costs of buying energy on the wholesale market. The utility’s British Gas unit, the nation’s biggest supplier to homes, will increase its standard variable tariff in October, hiking the average bill for the 3.5 million customers on the plan by 3.8 percent ...

Bloomberg A clean-power company owned by billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has taken over a Caribbean solar farm that was damaged last year by Hurricane Maria. Virgin’s BMR Energy unit, which develops, owns and operates clean-energy projects in the Caribbean and Latin America, plans to restore the 4-megawatt farm in St. Croix, the US Virgin Islands, and take over a ...