Munich / AFP Russia said on Thursday it was ready to discuss a ceasefire in Syria as foreign ministers gathered in Munich in a bid to kick-start peace talks derailed by the regime onslaught on the besieged city of Aleppo. Tens of thousands of Syrians have fled to the Turkish border as government forces, backed by Russian bombers and Iranian ...

Rome / Bloomberg Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has compared Europe’s recent economic policies to administering drugs to artificially prolong the life of a terminally ill patient. A regular critic of the European Union’s budget deficit rules, Renzi said in an open letter published by La Repubblica on Thursday that austerity economics had resulted in Europe being left behind by ...

Bloomberg Norway’s biggest political party says the country’s giant wealth fund needs to rethink its proposed entry into the $20 trillion infrastructure market. “With what we’re seeing now with economic developments globally, and the short-term cost of that for Norway, it’s time to put the brakes on,” said Torstein Tvedt Solberg, a Labor Party politician who sits on the parliamentary ...