International News

  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 ...

  Berlin / AFP German regulators suspect that Italian-American auto maker Fiat Chrysler, like Volkswagen, used illegal software to cheat on emissions tests, a newspaper report said Sunday. The German Federal Motor Vehicle Office (KBA) had sent a report voicing the suspicion to the European Commission and to Italian authorities, according to Germany’s Bildam Sonntag newspaper. The news report came ...

  Bloomberg What looks set to become Denmark’s biggest initial public offering in more than a decade may add to pressure on the krone at a time when the exchange rate is already testing levels last seen during a 2015 speculative attack. With 15 percent of Dong Energy A/S slated to be sold to the public next month, the potential ...

  Bloomberg Production at three Total SA refineries in France was disrupted following a vote by workers to stop the plants amid discontent over the government’s handling of a proposed labour law. A number of production units at the Gonfreville refinery in Normandy, Feyzin near Lyon and at Donges, close to Nantes, have been shut down, industry group Union Francaise ...

  Bloomberg Norway’s sovereign wealth fund may be forced to step up divestments of coal companies and could face a wider ban on investments in other fossil fuels such as oil sands. A majority of parties in Norway’s parliament want to tighten guidelines that prevent the $850 billion fund from owning companies that base more than 30 percent of their ...

Bloomberg Switzerland is preparing for a final round of negotiations with the European Union on immigration in the 13 days following the U.K. vote on EU membership, Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reported, without saying how it got the information. Switzerland’s chief negotiator with the EU, Jacques de Watteville, informed the government on Wednesday about his plan for talks on limiting the ...