Bloomberg Gabon’s Prime Minister Emmanuel Issoze-Ngondet presented a resignation letter to President Ali Bongo Ondimba on Tuesday after the Constitutional Court dissolved the central African nation’s parliament, according to a government statement. The parliament was dissolved after an April 30 deadline to hold legislative elections lapsed. Its functions will be taken over by the Senate until the vote is held ...

Bloomberg The US State Department said a referendum to amend Burundi’s constitution that includes changing presidential terms “through a non-transparent process” will undermine the East African nation’s democratic institutions. Burundi is scheduled to hold a plebiscite on May 17 that could see President Pierre Nkurunziza extend his 13-year rule until 2034. His decision in 2015 to run for a third ...

Bloomberg Donald Trump’s current team of lawyers lacks the security clearances needed to discuss sensitive issues related to a possible presidential interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, according to two people familiar with the matter. Trump’s former lead lawyer John Dowd had been the only member of the president’s personal legal team with a security clearance, the people said. When ...

Bloomberg The main attraction at Javier Bertucci’s presidential campaign rally wasn’t the Christian hip hop, the interpretive dancers or even the bouncy castle. It was the soup. The 48-year-old Venezuelan televangelist came to the seaside community of Catia La Mar with vats of hearty beef stew that drew hundreds of hungry people carrying plastic containers and cups. He has spent ...

Bloomberg US equities drifted lower as investors digested earnings reports and shifted focus to the Federal Reserve’s imminent rate decision. The dollar recovered from earlier losses to surge for a third straight session, while Treasuries were little changed. The S&P 500 Index declined in Wednesday trading, with healthcare and financial stocks among the laggards. Tech shares moved higher on the ...

Bloomberg There’s been lots of competition for the title of Asia’s best-performing stock market this year. Among the major equity indexes in the region, eight have climbed to records in the first four months alone. On Wednesday, Singapore’s Straits Times Index nudged higher, boosting this year’s gain to 6.2 percent in local currency terms, and took the top spot from ...

Bloomberg The Trump administration sought to temper expectations for a swift breakthrough on trade issues with China as a delegation of senior US officials prepares to visit Beijing this week. “It’s a big, big challenge. There’s a very different system over there and it’s a system that in all honesty has probably worked pretty well for the Chinese,” Trade Representative ...

Bloomberg Fortis Healthcare Ltd. shares extended their best monthly gain in more than three years after IHH Healthcare Bhd. and two Indian tycoons revised their offers in the race for the country’s second-largest hospital chain. The stock climbed 4.3 percent to 158.90 rupees, its highest close since March 15. Fortis shares gained 24 percent last month, the best performance since ...

Bloomberg Philippine inflation will ease from a five-year high once lawmakers approve a measure that will allow more rice imports, giving authorities scope to delay an interest rate increase, according to a senior economic planner. Inflation that climbed to 4.3 percent in March will cool by at least 1 percentage point once a law limiting overseas purchases of the nation’s ...

Bloomberg An Indian court halted Vedanta Ltd.’s takeover process for Electrosteel Steels Ltd. after a challenge by Renaissance Steel Ltd., a rival bidder. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal has agreed to hear Renaissance Steel’s appeal against Vedanta’s revival plan for indebted Electrosteel on May 17, posing a legal hurdle for the first large steel defaulter to complete the bankruptcy ...