International News

BLOOMBERG Brazil economists forecast lower interest rates this year on the expectation incoming central bank president Ilan Goldfajn will ease monetary policy to stimulate growth. Economists reduced their 2016 Selic forecast to 12.75 percent from 13 percent the prior week, according to the weekly Focus survey conducted May 20. They also raised their IPCA inflation forecast to 7.04 percent, from ...

  London / AFP With one month to go until Britain’s EU referendum, the Remain campaign is pulling ahead amid warnings over the international consequences of a Brexit and increasingly outlandish claims at home. The battle for votes ahead of the June 23 referendum has drawn in US President Barack Obama, EU leaders and the IMF, prompted comparisons between the ...

  NEW DELHI / Reuters Indian refiners have cleared part of the $6.4 billion owed to Iran for crude oil imports in euros through Turkey’s Halkbank, three sources privy to the payment said. This is the first payment to Iran by India since the lifting of Western sanctions against the Persian Gulf nation earlier this year and comes just ahead ...

  New Delhi / Bloomberg Apple Inc.’s Tim Cook outlined his vision for his company in India in a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday where they also discussed cybersecurity and data encryption. “Cook shared Apple Inc.’s future plans for India,” according to a statement from the Indian government. “He spoke of the possibilities of manufacturing and retailing ...

  ZHENGZHOU / AP Increasing infrastructure investment is the best way to boost economic growth in China and doing so doesn’t undermine efforts to overhaul the economy, according to former central bank adviser Yu Yongding. “If China does not increase infrastructure investment now, it may miss a historical opportunity,” Yu said at an economics conference in Beijing. “In order to ...

  Seoul / AFP Dozens of people in one of the world’s most wired nations took part on Sunday in South Korea’s “space-out” competition aimed at promoting a life free from stress and information overload. About 60 contestants spent 90 minutes sitting in a public park in Seoul without talking, sleeping, eating, or using any electronic devices during the event ...

  ZHENGZHOU / AP Some 500 people on Sunday protested what they say is a lack of university student placements in their central China province, in the latest protest over education reform. Parents holding banners that read “Fair education” rallied in Zhengzhou city against what they say is a serious shortage of college placements in Henan province. The protest in ...

  Tokyo / Bloomberg Toyota Motor Corp. said it will work with Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway human transporter, to develop advanced wheelchairs for disabled people and aging populations worldwide. The agreement announced gives the world’s largest automaker a license to use balancing technology that Kamen has installed in prior generations of wheelchairs for medical rehabilitative therapy and other ...

  Chittagong / AFP Thousands of Bangladeshis were left homeless on Sunday after Cyclone Roanu battered the impoverished southern coastal region, ripping apart flimsy houses and killing at least 24 people. The storm on Saturday ploughed through low-lying villages in the Chittagong and Barisal regions, where residents described seeing metres-high walls of water. Many Bangladeshis were returning safely home on ...

  Bloomberg Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras braces for yet another vote on additional austerity measures, as European creditors remain at loggerheads with the International Monetary Fund about how much debt relief the country will get for its pain. Lawmakers in Athens were scheduled to vote Sunday night on an omnibus bill that includes measures ranging from the taxation of ...