International News

  Bloomberg Argentina is about to find itself in yet another legal dispute with disgruntled creditors. A group of European investors who own defaulted Argentine debt plan to sue the country in Germany as soon as next month after they were excluded from a settlement offer, said Jakob Heichele, a Munich-based attorney at a law firm that bears his name ...

  Bloomberg London’s housing market faces severe price declines if the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union triggers an extended period of economic weakness, according to UBS Group AG. A severe recession could halt the “unsustainable price growth fueled by ample liquidity and tight supply,” UBS said in a report accompanying its Global Real Estate Bubble Index. London is ...

  London / AFP Soft drinks giant A.G. Barr, maker of Scotland’s famous Irn-Bru fizzy drink, slammed the British government Tuesday over its proposed sugar tax against obesity, as it reported falling sales. Barr — whose brands include carbonated drink Tizer and Rubicon juices — said there had been a move towards sugar-free drinks in the face of “negative media ...

  Berlin / AFP German data protection authorities on Tuesday said they had blocked Facebook from collecting subscriber data from its subsidiary WhatsApp, citing privacy concerns. Facebook and WhatsApp promised in the wake of the Silicon Valley giant’s 2014 acquisition of the messaging app that they would not share data, Hamburg’s Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information Johannes ...

  Liverpool / AFP Distracted by a bitter leadership contest, Britain’s main opposition Labour party has struggled to present a vision of Brexit to challenge the ruling Conservatives— and many fear the re-election of Jeremy Corbyn will do little to change this. There are concerns the lack of an alternative could result in a “hard Brexit”, where Britain agrees to ...

  Sao Paulo / AFP Brazilian police on Monday arrested Antonio Palocci, a former finance minister and senior figure in the last two governments, as part of the Petrobras corruption probe, news reports said. Police said only that a former minister was arrested. The state-run Agencia Brasil and other news outlets identified the person as Palocci, 55, who served as ...

  Bloomberg Lanxess AG agreed to buy U.S. competitor Chemtura Corp. for about $2.1 billion in cash, more than doubling the size of its additives business and accelerating a shift towards specialty chemicals. Shareholders of the maker of lubricant additives and flame retardants will get $33.50 a share under the terms of deal, Cologne, Germany-based Lanxess said in a statement ...

  Frankfurt / AFP German business confidence soared to its highest level in more than two years in September, the Ifo economic institute said on Monday, recovering from a post-Brexit slump and signalling a rosier outlook for Europe’s largest economy. The closely-watched index unexpectedly jumped to 109.5 points from 106.3 points in August to reach its highest reading since May ...

  Bloomberg Traders are growing increasingly pessimistic about Mexico’s ability to stave off a credit-rating downgrade. It costs 0.23 percentage point more to insure Mexico’s bonds against nonpayment than debt from lower-rated Panama, based on trading in credit-default swaps. That’s the most in six years. Mexico is also more costly to protect against default than Peru, which shares the same ...

  TOKYO/ AP Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged on Monday to accelerate his mix of policies to prop up Japan’s economic recovery and speed up parliamentary approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. In his policy statement opening the 66-day parliamentary session, Abe outlined an extra set of stimulus measures to help the economic recovery and spur more consumer and ...