International News

Bloomberg The U.S. is asking Novartis AG to provide records of about 80,000 “sham” events in which the government says doctors were wined and dined so they would prescribe the company’s cardiovascular drugs to their patients. The Swiss drugmaker and the Manhattan U.S. Attorney are engaged in a whistle-blower lawsuit that alleges Novartis provided illegal kickbacks to health-care providers through ...

Sacramento / AP California legislators and labour unions have reached a tentative agreement that will take the state’s minimum wage from $10 to $15 an hour, a move that would make for the largest statewide minimum in the nation by far. “This is not a done deal,” Sen. Mark Leno, a Democrat from San Francisco, said. “Everyone’s been operating in ...

Sao Paulo / AP Unemployment in Latin America’s largest country is at its highest level since 2012, the Brazilian government said on Thursday. The country’s IBGE statistics bureau said that the jobless rate in the three months through January was 9.5 percent, compared to the 6.8 percent posted in the same period one year ago. The number of people out ...

New York / AFP Tesla is set to unveil the Model 3, its long-anticipated pitch to middle class drivers and a key component in founder Elon Musk’s vision to mainstream the electric car. Tesla Motors, until now a purveyor of luxurious all-electric cars with equally luxurious price-tags, plans to sell the Model 3 for $35,000, half the base price of ...

Brussels / AP At the aptly named Planete Chocolat, the shelves are laden with enticing Easter treasures for shoppers: bunnies with bows, pastel-wrapped eggs and elegant boxes of pralines. Swannee Vranckx, a clerk at the shop near Brussels’ main square, said she would normally have seen 50 to 100 customers by midafternoon in the days before one of the biggest ...

Bloomberg Britain’s opposition Labour party said the government is planning to cut its border force budget by 6 percent in each of the next two years, citing “whistleblowers” within the agency that it didn’t identify. The reduction would result in 88 million pounds ($124 million) of cuts during that span, Labour said on its website on Saturday. Border Force staff ...

Istanbul / AFP Six suicide attacks in eight months and a spat with Russia have added to concerns for the Turkish economy as tourists flee, taking billions of dollars in spending elsewhere, and foreign investors skirt the troubled country. Days after a suspected IS extremist blew himself up on a top shopping street in Istanbul, hotels, restaurants and retailers in ...

TOKYO / Reuters A laggard in embracing the ‘fintech’, or financial technology, revolution, Japan is set to ease investment restrictions that could free up the flow of capital in an economy sitting on an estimated $9 trillion in individuals’ cash deposits. Strict regulation, easy access to credit due to rock-bottom interest rates, and weak demand for innovative financial services from ...

Tokyo / Bloomberg Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Foxconn Technology Group’s flagship company, on Sunday denied media reports that the bailout of Sharp Corp. will be approved and signed on March 31, a day after Hon Hai’s board meets. Progress in talks to acquire troubled Japanese electronics maker Sharp will determine whether the deal is discussed at the board meeting, ...

Bangkok / DPA Plans to strip Thais of their national identification card for failing to pay a long-standing education debt would be difficult to implement and could be a violation of their human rights violation, graduates have said. The Student Loan Fund (SLF) is considering co-ordinating with the Interior Ministry to not renew the national identification cards of debtors. A ...