BASRA / BAGHDAD / Reuters Worsening clashes among tribes and a political void is threatening security at oil installations in Iraq’s main southern oil producing region, officials and security sources said. Iraq has concentrated security forces in the north and west of the OPEC oil producer in the biggest campaign since the US-led invasion in 2003 to retake territory lost ...

DUBAI / Reuters The government of Bahrain is expected to offer investors significant premiums over its outstanding debt when it issues bonds this week because of growing concern over its finances in an era of cheap oil, portfolio managers said. A triple-tranche issue may follow, including a long seven-year sukuk issue maturing in 2025, a 12-year conventional bond and, subject ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc. is hiring by the hundreds in China to fill jobs ranging from internet software engineers to designers for Alexa, positioning the company to recoup some of the market share it lost to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in the world’s largest online shopping arena. The online retail giant lists almost 400 Chinese-based openings on its careers website and ...

Bloomberg China’s Cindat Capital Management is joining an acquisition of QHotels Group valuing the UK hospitality company at more than $660 million, people with knowledge of the matter said. Cindat, which focuses on overseas property deals, is negotiating a joint purchase of QHotels with UK investment firm Aprirose, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the ...

Bloomberg Self-censorship is kicking in fast on WeChat as China’s new rules on message groups casts a chill among the 963 million users of Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s social network. Regulations released on September 7 made creators of online groups responsible for managing information within their forums and the behaviour of members. While they don’t take effect until October, authorities have ...

Bloomberg A Beijing court has sentenced the owner of the firm behind China’s biggest online lending fraud to life in prison. Ding Ning, the chairman of Yucheng Group, was also fined $15 million for fundraising fraud, smuggling precious metals, and owning guns illegally, according to a judgment handed down by the Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court on Tuesday. Yucheng ultimately ...

Bloomberg Its sovereign bonds don’t yield much more than US Treasuries, they cost less to insure than Spanish notes and its currency is more stable than China’s managed yuan. In a sign of how the flood of money into emerging markets is upending conventional wisdom, military-run Thailand with a credit rating just three levels above junk at Moody’s Investors Service ...

­­­­­­­­­­­Bloomberg Theresa May’s plans for taking Britain out of the European Union remain on track after members of Parliament cleared the way for her Brexit law to advance — but threatened to re-write it later. In a vote after midnight, lawmakers agreed to allow the EU withdrawal bill to continue its progress through Parliament, by 326 votes to 290. The ...

Bloomberg American business enthusiasm in Southeast Asia is bent but far from broken even as the region grapples with a new trade framework and less US government involvement, according to a survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore. Eighty percent of executives see their firms’ level of trade and investment in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ...

Bloomberg Volkswagen AG is putting its full force behind a shift into electric cars as the world’s largest automaker accelerates away from combustion engines and tries to draw a line under the emissions-cheating scandal that’s weighed on the company for two years. Speaking on the eve of the Frankfurt auto show, Chief Executive Officer Matthias Mueller announced sweeping plans to ...