International News

Bloomberg Chile, widely viewed as a model of stability and democracy in a region plagued by impropriety and upheaval, is facing a campaign funding scandal that has cast a shadow over politicians of all major parties. More than a year of revelations has helped drive to record lows the approval ratings of the government, President Michelle Bachelet, the Chamber of ...

Beijing / AP Vietnam risks being vulnerable to external shocks if it doesn’t push through reforms to strengthen its banking system and restructure state businesses, according to International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde. The Southeast Asian nation isn’t in a position to withstand economic blows from tightening of monetary policies elsewhere, a deep and prolonged drop in commodity prices and ...

Beijing / Bloomberg China plans to more than triple solar power capacity by 2020 to as much as 143 gigawatts to help reduce carbon emissions. The country will add 15 to 20 gigawatts of photovoltaic power annually in the next five years, Nur Bekri, head of the National Energy Administration, said in a conference in Beijing on Monday. China accounted ...

Beijing / Bloomberg Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. sold 3 trillion yuan ($463 billion) of goods through its online shopping websites in the year ending March, as China’s largest e-commerce operator moved deeper into the untapped countryside and courted foreign brands. The company wants to bring in more quality non-Chinese goods and continue to increase its footprint in rural areas to ...

New Delhi / Bloomberg India just ushered in an interest-rate cut, via the backdoor. Although paying postal-savings depositors slightly less for their cash may appear a minor tweak, the move could end up having a bigger salutary effect on bank balance sheets, and the country’s nervous bond market, than the Reserve Bank of India’s 125 basis-point reduction since early 2015. ...

Beijing / DPA Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli will meet China’s President Xi Jinping and his counterpart Li Keqiang on Monday, while witnessing the signing of several agreements between Nepal and China. Nepali officials have set their sights on signing of Transit and Transportation Agreement with China that will pave the way for Nepal to use the nearest Chinese ...

Bangkok / AFP Thailand’s 4G expansion was thrown into disarray on Monday after a telecoms company that beat more established rivals at an auction last year failed to meet its first payment deadline, voiding the bid. The failure is a blow to the country’s junta who had earmarked money from the lucrative auctions for use in key infrastructure projects and ...

BANGKOK / AP About 750 passengers were stranded on Bangkok’s Airport Rail Link due to a power outage during Monday morning rush hour, prompting several people to walk along the train’s overhead tracks to the next station. Bangkok’s Erawan medical emergency center said seven people fainted on the train while waiting more than two hours for operations to resume. The ...

Bloomberg Leaving the European Union might cost the UK £100 billion ($145 billion) in lost economic output and 950,000 jobs by 2020, the Confederation of British Industry said as it stepped up its campaign against a so-called Brexit. An exit could, according to the study, meaning unemployment would be 2-3 percent higher by 2020 than if Britain remained in the ...

Bloomberg The pound fell from a one-month high versus the dollar after a senior member of the U.K. government resigned on Friday, deepening the rift in the ruling Conservative party just three months before the referendum on Britain’s European Union membership. Sterling weakened against all of its 16 major peers and was the worst performing currency among the Group-of-10 nations. ...