International News

  Washington / AFP Letitia stands on a metro station platform in downtown Washington, waiting for a train that she now realizes is not going to come. “I will be walking home tonight and all the nights to come,” said the 28-year-old woman, who works as a cashier at a 24-hour supermarket. In the US capital city, an urgently needed ...

  Frankfurt / AFP Car parts supplier Continental upped its forecast for 2016 on Wednesday after strong performance in its tyres business. Chief executive Elmar Degenhart said the group would target an adjusted operating profit of “over 11%”, where previously the target had been set at “around 11%”. Continental’s net profit in the second quarter grew to 905mn euros, up ...

  Bloomberg The long-feared Chinese hard landing has become a reality in rustbelt Liaoning. The northeastern province, ground zero in China’s multi- year slowdown, saw its economy contract 1 percent in the first half of 2016 as factories splutter and the coal industry groans under the weight of overcapacity. But the hardship remains localized, with regional data for the first ...

  Bloomberg Indian stocks dropped the most in a month amid losses in emerging-market equities and as investors turned cautious before lawmakers began debating the unified sales tax bill. The S&P BSE Sensex tumbled 1 percent at the close in a fourth day of losses, the longest losing run in seven weeks. A gauge of mid-cap stocks had its steepest ...

Bloomberg Not for the first time, a long-awaited plan by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has fallen flat with investors. The Topix slumped 1.6 percent on Tuesday after Abe returned to the fiscal-stimulus lever with a 28 trillion yen ($277 billion) spending-and-lending package to sooth concern that his Abenomics program isn’t working. It dropped another 2.2 percent on Wednesday. The ...

  Bloomberg China’s futures exchange is planning to relax the restrictions on stock-index contracts that sparked a 99 percent plunge in trading and heightened concern over the government’s intervention in markets, according to people familiar with the matter. The bourse is considering allowing non-hedging accounts to open 100 new positions a day on a single contract, the people said. Currently, ...

  Washington / AFP Ever since the IMF participated in the first Greek bailout six years ago, the stinging suspicion has been that the Fund is under Europe’s thumb. Now the International Monetary Fund is again under pressure to come to the aid of Athens, providing likely fodder for critics. Europe forged an 86 billion euro ($96 billion) aid package ...

  San Francisco / AFP Instagram said that is adding a new weapon for fighting harassment at the popular mobile app for sharing pictures and videos. The Facebook-owned social network began letting some celebrities and others with accounts that attract torrents of feedback filter those comments by keywords or even turn off the option to comment on particular posts. “Our ...

  New York / AFP Electric carmaker Tesla said it won agreement from SolarCity to acquire the solar power company for $2.6 billion, confirming a deal that has been criticized on Wall Street. Tesla announced the bid in late June, but it drew jeers on Wall Street, in part because of skepticism over the motives of Tesla chief executive Elon ...

  Bloomberg European stocks fell on weak British and eurozone manufacturing data and worries about the health of Italian banks. Equities elsewhere were mixed, with the Dow in the US retreating slightly as oil prices fell but the tech-rich Nasdaq finishing higher. The Japanese Nikkei pushed higher for a second straight session. London slid 0.5 percent after a survey showed ...