International News

Bloomberg Payrolls rose in 36 states in February and the unemployment rate dropped in 22, a sign labor market slack is gradually diminishing in the U.S. economy. California led the nation with an almost 40,000 increase in employment, followed by a 25,100 advance in New York, figures from the Labor Department showed. Jobless rates in New Hampshire and South Dakota ...

Washington / AP House Republicans are preparing legislation to create a new oversight board that would help Puerto Rico control its finances, a move designed to deal with the territory’s $70 billion in debt. The legislation is in response to House Speaker Paul Ryan’s promise at the end of last year that the House would work with Puerto Rico to ...

Bloomberg Argentina’s historic return to capital markets is facing a new hurdle as holders of as much as $1.5 billion in bonds from its 2001 default say they’ve been unfairly left out of settlement offers. Some of those investors — including Fore Research & Management LP and Varde Partners — teamed with others seeking to keep a judge’s order in ...

Bloomberg If the president can take his family to Cuba, other Americans will want to follow. And if blue-chip companies such as Google and Starwood are opening there for business, so will other companies. More important than any diplomatic negotiation during President Barack Obama’s historic visit, are images from his visit that the administration says solidify public perceptions of the ...

Paris / AFP Security forces responded with tear gas on Thursday as French students protesting proposed labour reforms hurled bottles at riot police in Paris and the western city of Nantes. The reforms, which were significantly watered down under pressure from a wave of protests, were adopted earlier Thursday by the cabinet of an increasingly unpopular President Francois Hollande, who ...

Bloomberg Richard Dearlove, former head of Britain’s MI6 overseas spying operation, said the security cost of leaving the European Union “would be low,” explicitly rejecting Home Secretary Theresa May’s argument for staying in the bloc. Following Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in Brussels, whether EU membership enhances or harms the safety of British people has become the top issue in the debate ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank handed €7.3 billion ($8.2 billion) to euro-area banks in the seventh round of a program aimed at boosting lending to companies and consumers, shortly before it starts a new and more generous plan. The take-up in the targeted longer-term refinancing operation compares with €18.3 billion the ECB lent in a similar operation in December and ...

Bloomberg Russia’s ruble retreated for a second day on falling crude prices, while ING Groep NV said the drop would be steeper without demand from companies converting export revenue to pay a 1 trillion ruble ($14.5 billion) monthly tax bill. The currency fell 0.3 percent against the dollar to 68.9410 by 11:32 a.m. in Moscow, extending Wednesday’s 1.8 percent decline ...

Bloomberg As Britain ponders its future in the European Union, investors are betting an amount almost the size of Iceland’s economy on the pound falling to levels last seen in the 1980s. At least 11 billion pounds ($15.5 billion) has been wagered this year on options that would profit if sterling fell to or below $1.3502, a 4 percent drop ...

Bloomberg Barack Obama became the first U.S. president to visit Argentina in more than a decade as his counterpart, Mauricio Macri, seeks a rapprochement with the international community following a decade of financial and diplomatic isolation. Obama, arriving from an historic state visit to Cuba, met with Macri and is scheduled to attend a business forum in Buenos Aires before ...