ISTANBUL / AP Turkish state media aired new footage on Tuesday of a man believed to be the IS gunman who killed 39 people at a nightclub, showing a grim selfie video of the suspect as he circles Istanbul’s most famous square. The camera never leaves the man’s unsmiling face as he walks through Taksim square, one of Istanbul’s prime ...

  JAKARTA / AP An Indonesian court ruled on Tuesday that witness testimony will be closed to the media in the blasphemy trial of the capital’s minority Christian governor. Jakarta Gov. Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama is charged with insulting Islam and desecrating the Quran by using one of its verses to boost his chances of winning re-election. Ahok, 50, is seeking ...

  BAGHDAD / AP Violence claimed the lives of at least 6,878 civilian Iraqis last year, the United Nations said, as the Iraqi government struggles to maintain security nationwide and to dislodge IS group militants from areas under their control. The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, known as UNAMI, said its numbers “have to be considered as the absolute minimum” as ...

  SANAA / ap Yemeni security officials say pro-government forces attacked al-Qaida militants in the country’s south, killing 15 extremists but losing 11 of their own troops. The officials say the fighting began when security forces, backed by the Saudi-led coalition that is fighting Yemen’s Shiite rebels elsewhere in the country, on Tuesday attacked an al-Qaida stronghold in the Marakasha ...

  The US is a place where the big things — health care, infrastructure and asset management to name a few — just cost too much. Price transparency is an underrated tool for bringing down those costs. In economics classes, we teach something called the law of one price — the cost of the same good or service shouldn’t be ...

  Each December, China’s leaders meet to lay out their economic agenda for the next year. And each December, China-watchers pore over their every word, much like Kremlinologists during the Cold War. It bears remembering that these pronouncements are rarely predictive, and that the best sources of insight on China’s economy are usually found elsewhere. Here are a few key ...

  Does the current interest in “fact-checking” and action to deal with “fake news” serve the cause of better politics? You might think it would, or at least that it couldn’t hurt. I’m skeptical. The main problem is that teams such as FactCheck.org, PolitiFact and the Washington Post’s Fact Checker don’t always do what they say. Often they aren’t checking ...

  Bloomberg Australia & New Zealand Banking Corp. agreed to sell its 20 percent stake in Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank Co. for A$1.84 billion ($1.33 billion), Chief Executive Officer Shayne Elliott’s latest move to unwind an Asian expansion that sapped profits. China Cosco Shipping Corp. and Shanghai Sino-Poland Enterprise Management Development Corp. will buy 10 percent each, the Melbourne-based company ...

  Bloomberg Oman is preparing an international bond sale, two people with knowledge of the deal said, as the country seeks to plug a budget deficit caused by low oil prices. The sultanate has sent invitations to banks to arrange the sale of a dollar or Islamic bond, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is ...

  Bloomberg Turkey’s lira weakened the most among major world currencies on Tuesday, falling as much as 1.6 percent to a new record, as the killer of 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub remained at large and inflation accelerated more than estimates in December. The lira depreciated to a record 3.60 against the dollar before trading 1.3 percent lower at ...