Paris / AFP Standard and Poor’s upgraded its outlook for Turkey’s credit rating, judging the prospects for the nation’s economy to be stable despite political instability that may dampen growth and reform plans. The end to the negative outlook on the BB+ foreign currency rating, one rung below an investment grade, came a day after President RecepTayyipErdogan’s plans to consolidate ...

  Berlin / AFP The EU won’t sacrifice its high food safety standards for better US auto market access in a transatlantic trade deal being negotiated, a German minister said. The comments by Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt were the latest criticism of the thorny negotiations toward sealing a wide-ranging pact that would create a free-trade zone covering 850 million people. ...

  Washington / AFP   US employers cut back hiring in April in the wake of the economy’s sharp downturn, raising worries of a protracted slowdown in the world’s largest economy. Net new jobs fell unexpectedly to the lowest level in seven months, with just 160,000 additional jobs generated, over 40,000 less than economists predicted, the Labour Department reported. That was ...