Bloomberg Chinese authorities plan to propose that this year’s fiscal deficit stay at 3 percent of gross domestic product, unchanged from 2016, according to people familiar with the matter, signaling further tolerance for slower economic growth. The budget deficit, usually announced in March, requires approval by the National People’s Congress and is subject to change, said the people, who …

  BEIRUT / AP At least 43 people were killed when a car bomb ripped through the center of a busy commercial district of a rebel-held Syrian town along the Turkish border, damaging buildings and leaving rescue workers searching for survivors amid the wreckage, activists and rescue workers said. The explosion went off early Saturday afternoon outside a local court …

  WASHINGTON / AP President-elect Donald Trump says he’ll nominate former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats as national intelligence director. Trump says in a statement that Coats — a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee before retiring from Congress last year — will lead the new administration’s “ceaseless vigilance against those who seek to do us harm.” The post requires Senate confirmation. …