International News

  AFP Mayra de Ramos stood in line all day to buy two packs of corn flour and pasta, but the Venezuelan grandmother says it won’t be enough. She lives with her three children and three young grandchildren in Catia, a downtrodden neighborhood in Caracas. “My refrigerator is bare,” the 64-year-old pensioner says, showing its empty shelves. “We don’t eat ...

  Herat / Agencies Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Afghanistan on Saturday to inaugurate a $290 million hydroelectric dam with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the latest Indian investment which highlights strengthening ties between the two countries. The 42 megawatt Salma dam in western Herat province, bordering Iran, is one of two major projects carried out under India’s development partnership ...

  Colombo / AFP The IMF on Saturday released the first tranche of a $1.5 billion bailout for Sri Lanka, which is reeling after a government spending spree and facing a balance of payments crisis. The International Monetary Fund said the formal approval of a 36-month loan under its Extended Fund Facility (EFF) will also help Sri Lanka secure another ...

  Hong Kong / Hong Kong Hong Kong railway operator MTR Corp. increased the size of a two-part loan to about HK$25 billion ($3.2 billion), after the city gave the green light for it to resume construction on a high-speed rail link to China earlier this year, people familiar with the matter said. MTR, three-quarters owned by the government, lifted ...

Beijing / Hong Kong China is approaching global economic organizations including the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to establish an annual meeting that would offer the nation a stronger policy voice on the world economic stage, according to a person familiar with the talks. The Ministry of Commerce and other agencies are leading discussions under the guidance of the ...

  Bloomberg Justice Secretary Michael Gove, one of the leaders of the campaign to get Britain out of the European Union, defended its assertions about the costs of membership as he was accused of running “Project Lies.” Appearing on a Sky News television special the night after Prime Minister David Cameron made the case for staying in the EU on ...

  London / AFP Former leaders of Britain’s main opposition Labour on Saturday urged supporters to vote in favour of EU membership at this month’s referendum. Six senior figures including Tony Blair and Gordon Brown said that, unless the party’s supporters turned out to vote on June 23, there was a risk of Brexit. Current Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been ...

  Bloomberg Finland was downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service, losing its last top credit rating just as the northernmost euro member is showing signs of emerging from a protracted economic stagnation. The country’s debt rating was cut to Aa1 from Aaa, Moody’s said in a statement on Friday. Finland had a triple-A rating from Moody’s since 1998. The country lost ...

  Bloomberg German government bonds may gain next week along with the rest of the euro region’s core debt market as investors seek havens before unprecedented political events later this month. Britain’s referendum on its European Union membership and Spain’s repeat elections are approaching, and bonds from Germany, France and the Netherlands have been outperforming their peripheral peers in the ...

  Luxembourg / AFP One of Europe’s smallest states, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, cast its eyes to the cosmos, announcing it would draw up a law to facilitate mining on asteroids. Extracting precious metals, rare minerals and other valuable commodities on passing asteroids is a staple of science fiction, but Luxembourg says incentives are urgently needed to turn this ...