Ankara/ AFP Germany’s foreign minister on Tuesday said it was up to Turkey to decide whether to advance its bid on joining the European Union, reaffirming Berlin’s “serious concern” at the crackdown after the failed July 15 coup. The purge that has seen over 35,000 people arrested and journalists as well as some MPs put in jail had raised questions ...

  Brussels / AFP NATO head Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday said he was sure Donald Trump would live up to all US commitments to the alliance, just days after urging the president-elect not to go it alone. “President-elect Donald Trump stated during the election campaign that he is a big fan of NATO,” Stoltenberg said in Brussels as he arrived ...

  Moscow / AFP Russian authorities said on on Tuesday they have charged Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev with bribe-taking after he was detained on suspicion of taking a two-million-dollar payoff over a deal involving state oil giant Rosneft. The Investigative Committee, the country’s main federal investigative body, said in a statement it had charged the minister with “receiving bribes” after he ...

  Marrakesh / AFP UN chief Ban Ki-moon voiced hope on Tuesday that Donald Trump will “vary” his stance denying climate change as world leaders gathered in Morocco to keep a planetary rescue plan on track. A week after the election to the White House of Trump, who has called global warming a “hoax” and has threatened to “cancel” the ...

  Hong Kong / AFP A Hong Kong court on Tuesday ruled to disqualify two pro-independence lawmakers from parliament, a week after Beijing said it would not allow the pair to be sworn into office as fears grow of the city’s liberties coming under threat. Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching deliberately misread their oaths of office, inserted expletives and draped ...

  AP India’s government said on Tuesday it will use indelible ink to mark the fingers of people swapping scrapped currency notes at banks as authorities struggle to deal with the bedlam caused by the sudden demonetizing of the country’s highest-denomination bills. India announced a week ago that it was withdrawing 500 and 1,000 rupee notes as legal tender to ...

  Bloomberg Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA will offer a voluntary debt-for-equity swap on 4.29 billion euros ($4.6 billion) of subordinated securities as part of its effort to reduce the amount of stock the struggling Italian lender would need to sell in its turnaround plan. The bank is offering shares in exchange for Tier 1 securities and Tier ...

  Bloomberg UniCredit SpA, Italy’s biggest bank by market value, climbed in Milan trading after news agency Ansa reported talk of a combination with France’s Societe Generale SA. UniCredit rose as much as 5.8 percent and was up 2.5 percent at 2.35 euros as of 9:57 a.m. Societe Generale was trading 1.4 percent higher at 40.35 euros. The stock has ...

  Bloomberg Russia’s biggest bank Sberbank said on Tuesday its net profits had doubled as borrowing in the country picked up after an abrupt halt last year. The country’s most popular consumer bank saw third-quarter net profits soar to 137 billion rubles ($2 billion) — a gain of 110 percent compared to the same period in 2015. The results were ...

  Bloomberg French tax authorities are seeking to recover 2.2 billion euros of tax breaks given to Societe Generale following massive losses due to “rogue trader” Jerome Kerviel’s recklessness, Les Echos newspaper said. In September an appeals court in Versailles, west of Paris, decided that the French banking giant was mostly to blame for ex-trader Kerviel losing 4.9 billion euros ...