Caracas / AFP Venezuelan protesters demanded a referendum on ousting President Nicolas, defying riot police who fired tear gas and a state of emergency that the opposition has blasted as unconstitutional. But Maduro warned that if anti-government acts turned violent “I will not hesitate” to ratchet up the extraordinary measures in force, “to fight for the peace and security ...

  Aranayaka / AFP Sri Lankan troops were digging through tonnes of mud on Thursday to search for more than 100 people reported missing after landslides buried two villages, claiming at least 24 lives. The government vowed to dig “as long as it takes” but hopes were fading of finding survivors in the landslides that hit a mountainous area late ...

Brazil can’t seem to catch a break. It’s suffering the worst economic slump in decades; its president may be thrown out of office; it’s contending with the zika virus. Now, to add to these indignities, come the huge subsidies to pay for this summer’s Olympics. The costs exceed $10 billion, with only a fraction to be covered by revenues from ...

  Taiwan is between a rock and a hard place. It needs China for economic reasons, but continues to be apprehensive about Beijing’s “assertive policy”. The future path of Taiwan’s independence-leaning president-elect Tsai Ing-wen is fraught with economic challenges as the island’s economy has been contracting year-on-year for three straight quarters. Beijing’s fears that Tsai may not sustain the ‘one ...

  Narayana Kocherlakota The U.S. government seems concerned about what will happen if other big nations push down the value of their currencies against the dollar. Actually, it could be good for the global economy. Ahead of this week’s meeting of finance ministers from the Group of Seven developed nations, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has warned that the U.S.’s counterparts ...

On Monday, China heavily criticized the European Parliament for a resolution passed last week that squarely took aim at Beijing’s bid for market economy status at the World Trade Organization (WTO). In the non-binding resolution last Thursday, EU legislators declared that China still fails to meet the criteria for a market economy as defined by EU law and that there ...

  Taiwan will inaugurate a new president this week who China hates but America should love. On Friday, Taiwan’s newly elected president, Tsai Ing-wen, will come into office amidst a storm of controversy and scandal. She will then begin a long hard slog through a cross-Strait political minefield, alienated from the world and increasingly unpopular at home. That is, if ...

  Duyen Bui SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS Vietnamese officials and the Vietnamese people are waiting in anticipation to welcome U.S. President Barack Obama in about a week. But each have very different reasons for awaiting Obama’s visit. The Vietnamese government will be laying out the red carpet for the leader of its former enemy, with whom it now seeks alliances ...

  BLOOMBERG Global stocks slid to a six-week low and commodities fell as markets braced for the possibility that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates as soon as next month. A gauge of the dollar’s strength stood at a seven-week high. The MSCI All Country World Index declined for a third day after the minutes of the last Fed ...

  Bloomberg Egyptian stocks declined after the nation’s flagship airline said one of its passenger planes went missing on the way back to Cairo from Paris. Most equities dropped across the Middle East as oil retreated. The EGX 30 Index fell 1.8 percent to 7,499.49 at the close. About 538 million Egyptian pounds ($61 million) of shares traded, 21 percent ...