DUBAI / Agencies The death toll in a wave of protests that have agitated Iran over the past five days climbed, as security forces clashed with demonstrators rallying in a rare show of displeasure with the country’s leaders. As many as a dozen people may have died. Calls for more demonstrations raise the possibility of prolonged instability. “In the events ...

Bloomberg After a year filled with nuclear provocations that raised fears of a devastating war in Northeast Asia, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un started 2018 on an optimistic note. His call for talks to ensure the success of the Winter Olympics in South Korea next month — and improve overall inter-Korean relations — represented a tactical shift for a ...

Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she’ll team up with France to hold the European Union together and pledged to form her next government “without delay.” Merkel outlined a vision for her fourth term that includes an alliance with French President Emmanuel Macron to strengthen Europe’s economic clout and control migration, while upholding values of tolerance and pluralism within the ...

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Theresa May is planning to make major changes to her cabinet in the new year, possibly sacking as many as five ministers, according to the Sunday Times. May has decided to bring younger members of Parliament into her government as part of a series of steps aimed at convincing voters she can do more than Brexit, ...

Bloomberg Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy set in motion the process for convening a new Catalan parliament and said he wouldn’t allow a new separatist administration to blackmail his government. A session to swear in lawmakers in Barcelona will take place on Jan. 17 before a vote days later to appoint a new regional president if there is a candidate, ...

Bloomberg South Africa’s top court found that parliament failed to hold President Jacob Zuma to account for his role in a scandal involving the misuse of public funds on his private home and ordered it to draft rules governing the circumstances under which he could be removed from office. “The assembly did not hold the president to account as was ...

As the world ushered in 2018, it’s worth reviewing what we forecast for China in the previous year, and to cast ahead for what themes might play out over the next 12 months. After meeting of Communist Party leaders at the Central Economic Work Conference, we can expect their targets and objectives for 2018. And these meetings have great import: ...

The trade war didn’t happen. Prepare for a few skirmishes. It was high on many observers’ lists of things that could go badly wrong in 2017. Buying and selling of goods and services across borders not only increased this year, but also grew more than anticipated. Next year may test whether that’s a durable trend or just an accident that ...

Chemicals, equipment, machinery parts. It’s not sexy stuff. Certainly not as cool as games consoles, image sensors and flash memory chips. But who needs sexy when you can have excellent returns on your portfolio of tech stocks. That’s what JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Japan Technology Fund did. It went for the mundane and posted a 107 percent return in the ...

Seven years ago, the US led an effort to address a problem facing governments everywhere. Each year, people manage to avoid paying an estimated $2.5 trillion in income tax — a giant sum that could be used to combat poverty, update infrastructure or lower tax rates for law-abiding citizens. Now, however, the US is becoming one of the world’s best ...