Caracas, Venezuela / AFP Venezuela’s opposition forces said electoral authorities have tallied 1.5 million signatures seeking to force President Nicolas Maduro from power with a recall referendum. Oil-dependent Venezuela has descended ever deeper into economic turmoil as global crude prices have collapsed, triggering food shortages, rampant inflation and now an electricity crisis. The center-right opposition, which won control of the …

  Bloomberg Look to the currency market for an early reading on the U.S. presidential election. Six-month options-based measures of exchange-rate volatility now include the Nov. 8 vote, offering traders a way to express views on the outcome, or to hedge against price swings. While neither major political party has formally chosen candidates, Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee for …

  Beirut / AFP Lebanese headed to the polls for the first time in six years on Sunday for municipal elections including in Beirut, where a new grassroots campaign is taking on entrenched parties. It is the first election of any kind in Lebanon since the last municipal polls in 2010, in a country that has not had a president …