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  Bloomberg Special prosecutors called Samsung Electronics Co. Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee for questioning as a suspect in a bribery investigation, deepening an influence-peddling scandal that has already led to the impeachment of South Korea’s president. The de facto head of the Samsung Group was summoned to appear at 9:30 a.m. in Seoul on Thursday, special prosecution spokesman Lee ...

  Bloomberg China is becoming more dependent on overseas natural gas as it seeks to wean itself off coal and avoid the toxic smog that suffocates the country every winter. The world’s largest energy user will increase imports of liquefied natural gas about 30 percent this year as domestic production stagnates and the government pushes cleaner fuels in an effort ...

  Bloomberg The German economy is getting some wind in its sails just as the waters are about to get rough. The nation, the first of the world’s biggest developed economies to report on its 2016 performance, probably achieved expansion of 1.8 percent, helped by a pickup toward the end of the year. The German result, forecast by economists surveyed ...

  Bloomberg Volkswagen AG’s supervisory board is set to sign off on a $4.3 billion settlement of US criminal and civil penalties for rigging diesel-powered cars to cheat on emissions tests, the latest step in the carmaker’s effort to resolve the scandal. The agreement with the US Department of Justice and customs authorities will include a guilty plea, Wolfsburg, Germany-based ...

  Bloomberg Venezuelans have to navigate a labyrinth of lines to buy staples like sugar or aspirin. They’ve gotten used to finding that the store shelves are empty, a frustration that sometimes boils over into looting. So they don’t really need economic data to tell them that 2016 was a terrible year. Still, when and if the numbers do come ...

  Bloomberg Arctic chill and heavy snowfall left tens of thousands of households in southeastern Europe without electricity as rivers froze over, cables failed and power stations had unplanned outages. From Greece to Hungary, hydroelectric production plummeted as temperatures fell as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) and parts of the Danube river were almost entirely covered ...

  Dubai / WAM Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) the financial hub of the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region, announced on Tuesday the launch of the region’s first fintech accelerator in Dubai. Set to be operational in the first quarter of 2017, the FinTech Hive at DIFC will introduce cutting-edge financial services technologies to the MEASA markets while ...

  Dubai / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, unveiled the UAE energy strategy for the next three decades. The new energy strategy, announced in the presence of HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, aims to increase the contribution of clean ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business The UAE’s food and beverage market is continuing its evolution as an international food and beverage capital thanks to forward-thinking operators looking to maximise their stake in a market expected to be worth a whopping AED82 billion by 2020, according to Euromonitor International. Now a record number of local F&B businesses are preparing to capitalise ...

  Bloomberg Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. will expand its footprint in the US oncology market with the $4.66 billion purchase of Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc., adding one potential blockbuster in lung cancer and another already on-the-market therapy. Takeda will pay $24 a share for Ariad, the companies said in a statement, 75 percent more than its Friday close of $13.74. The deal ...