Caracas, Venezuela / AFP With their country gripped by an economic crisis, Venezuelans will lose half an hour of sleep when their clocks are moved forward to save power on President Nicolas Maduro’s order. At 2:30 am local time, the oil-dependent South American nation will shift its time ahead by 30 minutes — to four hours behind Greenwich Mean Time. …

  New York / BLOOMBERG American International Group Inc. raised $1.25 billion selling shares of Chinese insurer PICC Property & Casualty Co. near the low end of a marketed range. The largest commercial insurer in the U.S. and Canada sold 740 million shares of PICC P&C at HK$13.08 apiece, after earlier offering them at HK$13.06 to HK$13.35, according to terms …

  Aleppo / AFP The United States demanded that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s forces halt their bombardment of Aleppo and help restore a nationwide ceasefire, with Secretary of State John Kerry due to head to Geneva for talks on the conflict. Terrified residents fled a new wave of air strikes on rebel-held areas of the divided city as key regime backer …