Bloomberg US and Brazilian authorities are set to impose $2.5 billion in foreign-corruption penalties on Odebrecht SA, Latin America’s biggest construction company, and an affiliate for violating anti-bribery laws, people familiar with the discussions said. Prosecutors say Odebrecht and the affiliate, Braskem SA, paid officials at Petroleo Brasileiro SA, the state-run oil producer known as Petrobras, to win contracts. …

  Bloomberg The Canadian government’s approval of two major oil export pipelines may mean the death knell for a third. For more than two years, TransCanada Corp.’s proposed 1.1 million barrel-a-day Energy East pipeline, designed to run from Alberta to New Brunswick, has been mired in regulatory hearings and opposition from environmentalists. Now, the hurdles it faces may be even …

  Washington / AFP The USA unemployment rate in November fell to its lowest level since August 2007 as the economy continued to add new jobs, all but guaranteeing an interest rate hike this month. The jobless rate fell an unusually large three-tenths to a surprising 4.6 percent, the Labor Department reported. A solid 178,000 net new positions were created, …