International News

  San Juan, Puerto Rico / AP Holders of bonds from Puerto Rico’s Government Development Bank are suing to challenge aspects of a debt-moratorium law that island officials say is crucial to maintaining essential services as the U.S. territory struggles under a nearly $70 billion debt load. The amended federal lawsuit filed late Friday in the U.S. District Court in San ...

  New York / AFP A guitar given to Elvis Presley by his father in 1969 went under the hammer for $334,000 in New York during an auction that also saw a Michael Jackson vest fetch $256,000. Vernon Presley is said to have changed the finish of the Gibson Dove acoustic guitar to ebony after his son earned his black belt ...

  Bloomberg Brazilian swap rates slid, even after consumer prices rose faster than forecast, in an early vote of confidence that the new administration will be able to slow inflation. Swap rates on the contract maturing in January 2018, a gauge of expectations for interest-rate moves, declined 0.05 percentage point to 12.72 percent, even as inflation accelerated more than all ...

  Bloomberg The electric-car revolution is here and Chile is looking to ramp up production of the lithium the industry needs for batteries. Or it would be, but for a bitter dispute between the government and the former son-in-law of a military dictator. After Chile’s government moved to withdraw its license to exploit one of the world’s largest deposits, Soc. ...

  New York / AFP Media mogul Sumner Redstone has ousted the head of Viacom from a trust with the power to take over his business interests, putting his daughter in position to control his $40 bn empire, a source close to the matter told AFP. Redstone, 92, is the controlling shareholder of Viacom and CBS whose failing health has set ...

  Tokyo / Bloomberg Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., the carmaker most reliant on exports from Japan, said it’ll stick to a strategy of producing the bulk of the company’s Subaru vehicles at home as the yen strengthens. The owner of Subaru brand, long known for all-wheel-drive vehicles, doesn’t want to focus narrowly on the impact of foreign exchange, Chief Executive ...

  New Delhi / AFP Apple chief executive Tim Cook met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Saturday, launching a new version of the Indian leader’s eponymous app on a visit aimed at pushing the technology giant’s expansion plans. Cook, shown in a video using the premier’s gold-coloured iPhone, launched an update to the Narendra Modi Mobile App to ...

  Islamabad / Bloomberg Pakistan’s central bank unexpectedly lowered its benchmark interest rate for the first time since September to boost economic growth before the government presents its budget for the new financial year. The State Bank of Pakistan cut the target policy rate to 5.75 percent from 6 percent, it said Saturday in an e-mailed statement in Karachi. All ...

  Colombo / Bloomberg Sri Lanka left its benchmark rates unchanged for a third straight month after it agreed a $1.5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to help improve public finances. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka kept the standing lending facility rate at 8 percent and the standing deposit facility rate at 6.5 percent, it said in ...

Singapore / Bloomberg HSBC’s weight-loss drive in India could leave the country’s banking system feeling a little breathless. But the health benefits will eventually show up. The UK-based lender will close half its branches in the country, which last year accounted for 3.2 percent of the group’s pre-tax profit. Assuming that the bank’s strategy of serving more of its Indian ...