AFP An International Monetary Fund team arrived in Kiev on Tuesday after the formation of a new Ukrainian government resolved a prolonged political crisis that had stalled the release of vital aid. The mission’s visit was long awaited in the cash-strapped former Soviet country as it grapples with the costs of a two-year conflict in the pro-Russian separatist east ...

  Bloomberg AbertisInfraestructuras SA agreed to pay €594 million ($677 million) to buy control of two Italian highways as the Spanish toll-road operator presses ahead with its international expansion plan. Abertis reached an accord with IntesaSanpaoloSpA, AstaldiSpA and the Tabacchi family to buy the two companies that control 51 percent of A4 Holding, which owns the A4 Brescia-Padova and A31 ...

  Bloomberg After years of aggressive regulation reining them in, Europe’s banks are starting to get some slack from the policy makers in Brussels. The European Union has opened up the entire financial rule book for review, including contentious issues such as the cap on bankers’ bonuses. Faced with weak banks and an anemic economy, regulators have made clear that ...

  Davao / AFP The election of Rodrigo Duterte as Philippine president marks the latest victory for populist politics, as voters around the world reward candidates offering simple solutions to complex problems. In a country beset by crime, poverty and corruption, Duterte promised voters a raft of quick fixes that many analysts believe will remain empty promises. One of his ...

  London / AFP A fifth of the world’s plant species are at risk of extinction, British researchers warned on Tuesday in an unprecedented global census of the plant kingdom. The survey by Britain’s Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, London, said 21 percent of species are under threat. The report, the first of its kind, is intended to become a ...

  Washington / AFP Several massive tornadoes churned above Oklahoma, killing at least two people, with hail as big as grapefruit hitting the US state, the authorities and US media said. The storms began forming in southern parts of the state in the afternoon, local media reported, with the first confirmed twister hitting near Elmore City, in rural Garvin County. ...

  Brasília / AFP The impeachment of Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff looked set to go ahead on Tuesday, after the interim speaker of the lower house said he had reversed his earlier annulment. In the latest twist to the country’s spirling political crisis, local media said Waldir Maranhao had “reversed the decision” to cancel the April vote by lawmakers that ...

  Beijing / AFP The US on Tuesday sailed a warship close to a disputed South China Sea reef Beijing has built up into an artificial island, reports and officials said, prompting China to express “dissatisfaction and opposition”. Guided-missile destroyer USS William P. Lawrence navigated within 12 nautical miles of the Fiery Cross Reef, occupied by China and also claimed ...

Yangon / AFP Washington’s new ambassador to Myanmar on Tuesday said remaining sanctions had taken an “unintended” toll on the nation’s delicate economic development, as the US re-evaluates its embargoes on the former pariah state. Myanmar’s stunning transition from decades of repressive junta rule to a civilian-led government steered by Aung San Suu Kyi and her pro-democracy party was accompanied ...

  Vienna / AFP Austria’s unpopular and squabbling centrist coalition began the search on Tuesday for a new leader and a new start after a surging populist far-right forced Chancellor Werner Faymann to resign. The choice of a successor to Faymann, 56, who quit on Monday due to “insufficient support” in his Social Democrats (SPOe) party, is fraught with potential ...