International News

  Athens / AFP   Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Athens on Sunday as Greece’s parliament prepared to vote on a controversial tax and pensions overhaul which has sparked mass opposition. Police said almost 15,000 people turned out to march in Athens and the second city of Thessaloniki against the measures demanded by the EU and IMF ...

  Frankfurt / AFP Greece has “basically achieved” the objectives of the reforms required by its creditors and its eurozone partners will begin discussing possible debt relief for the country, according to European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker. “We are now at the time of the first review of the programme (to aid Greece) and the objectives have been basically achieved,” ...

  AFP Eurozone finance ministers hold an emergency meeting on Monday to try to thrash out a difficult deal on fresh reforms for Greece as fears grow of a repeat of last year’s chaotic bailout negotiations. The ministers from the 19 countries that use the euro — the Eurogroup — will also discuss debt relief for Greece, which the International ...

  Bloomberg The U.K. will be safer staying in the European Union, two former chiefs of the country’s security services said, before voters head to the polls next month in an in-out referendum. Cooperation with the 27 other EU members means Britain is better placed to tackle threats ranging from IS terrorism to cyber-attacks by hostile governments, former MI5 chief ...

  FRANKFURT / AP Production of the 500-euro banknote is being discontinued amid concerns it had become too popular among crooks and money launderers. The European Central Bank, the monetary authority for the 19 countries that use the shared currency, made the decision at a meeting. The ECB said it was taking into account concerns that the banknote, which is ...

  Managua, Nicaragua / AFP The political and economic crises buffeting Brazil and Venezuela are having a big impact in Nicaragua, where the future of billion-dollar projects have been thrown into uncertainty. Venezuela was to have invested $6.5 billion in a petrochemical plant in the Central American country, while Brazil was set to spend $1.1 billion on a hydroelectric facility. They ...

  Bloomberg EIG Global Energy Partners has submitted a new bid for Pacific Exploration & Production Corp. with $830 million in creditor recovery that the private-equity firm argues is “vastly superior” to one selected last month by the board of the Colombia-based oil producer. The new bid comes ahead of a Tuesday court hearing in Canada on Pacific’s restructuring plan. ...

  Caracas, Venezuela / AFP Venezuela’s opposition forces said electoral authorities have tallied 1.5 million signatures seeking to force President Nicolas Maduro from power with a recall referendum. Oil-dependent Venezuela has descended ever deeper into economic turmoil as global crude prices have collapsed, triggering food shortages, rampant inflation and now an electricity crisis. The center-right opposition, which won control of the ...

  Bloomberg Look to the currency market for an early reading on the U.S. presidential election. Six-month options-based measures of exchange-rate volatility now include the Nov. 8 vote, offering traders a way to express views on the outcome, or to hedge against price swings. While neither major political party has formally chosen candidates, Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee for ...

  Yangon / AFP Hundreds of Myanmar villagers rallied on Saturday against a controversial Chinese-backed copper mine, activists said, reigniting a contentious issue that could pose an early challenge to Aung San Suu Kyi’s new government. The Letpadaung mine in the central town of Monywa has for years been dogged by complaints of land-grabbing, environmental damage and brutal police crackdowns on ...