International News

  Thetford / AFP The Chinese investor group pursuing a takeover of the AC Milan soccer club, which is controlled by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, is targeting a deal by June, people with knowledge of the matter said. The consortium, whose investors have a background in renewable energy and media, has agreed on most key terms and is seeking …

  Bloomberg Buyers snapped up $56 billion in Treasury debt at auctions this week, lured by higher yields than found in most other developed nations, as slow global growth and mixed U.S. economic data complicate the Federal Reserve’s efforts to raise interest rates. With investors buoyed by an April 14 report showing benign consumer-price inflation, demand was so strong at …

  Bloomberg UnitedHealth Group Inc. plans to exit a third state Obamacare market as the insurer works to stem losses from its struggling Affordable Care Act business. The insurer won’t sell policies through Michigan’s ACA exchange for next year, according to Andrea Miller, a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Insurance and Financial Services. Georgia and Arkansas said last week …

  Bloomberg Argentina’s first global debt sale in 15 years is receiving “awesome” demand, Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay said. “If you haven’t done it, you might as well call your broker because the demand is awesome,” he said from Washington, where he spoke at an event at Georgetown University during the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank. “Of …

Caracas / AFP Venezuela announced it is shifting its time zone forward 30 minutes to save power and alleviate a severe electricity crisis the government blames on the El Nino weather phenomenon. The move, effective May 1, will scrap a half-hour subtraction to the clocks Venezuela’s late former president Hugo Chavez introduced in 2007 that gave his country a slight offset …

Bloomberg Bank of England officials said the U.K.’s European Union referendum may already be weighing on growth as they kept their key interest rate at a record low. The nine-member Monetary Policy Committee, led by Governor Mark Carney, unanimously agreed to maintain the benchmark at 0.5 percent — where it’s been for more than seven years. In a ramping up …

  London / AP The latest bout of falling prices across the 19-country eurozone has ended — after just a single month. Revised figures on Thursday from the European Union’s statistics agency showed that inflation was flat in the year to March. That’s up from the initial estimate of a 0.1 percent fall and February’s 0.2 percent annual drop. The biggest …

Bloomberg Lawsuits filed by hundreds of Porsche SE investors over the company’s use of complex financial instruments in 2008 before its failed takeover of Volkswagen AG will be combined under a special procedure to handle some large civil cases in Germany. A court in Hanover ruled that it will send the cases to appellate judges in the northern city of …

  Bloomberg Elections are approaching in Norway, accompanied by the familiar sound of oil executives and politicians arguing over the environmentally sensitive Lofoten islands in the Arctic. Oil prices may have plunged in a global economy awash with oversupply, but producers in Norway say they’re thinking much longer term. Statoil ASA, which has been lobbying for years to open the …

Bloomberg President Vladimir Putin told Russians that the economy will resume growth next year in his annual call-in show on Thursday, aiming to shore up his support as the country’s longest economic downturn in two decades pushes more people into poverty. “The situation hasn’t been resolved yet but the trend is positive,” Putin said, pointing to forecasts that the economy …