Bloomberg Algeria’s 75-year-old leader flew to Germany last month for treatment after catching Covid-19. He hasn’t been seen in public since and barely a word on his condition reaches home. The prolonged absence of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune is now the hot topic of political debate, supplanting a vote on constitutional reform and the rumblings of war near the country’s western ...

Bloomberg One year ago, Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) was in flames. Police and student protesters faced off at the campus — one of Hong Kong’s best-known — in a chaotic 16-day siege last November that became a symbol of the battle between the city’s China-backed administration and anti-government protesters. Today, what had once been a bustling, freely accessible campus ...

Bloomberg French lender Credit Agricole SA offered to buy Italy’s Credito Valtellinese for about 737 million euros ($875 million) in cash as consolidation accelerates in European banking. The unsolicited bid of 10.50 euros a share, made through its Italian unit, represents a 21.4% premium to the November 20 closing price, according to a statement from Credit Agricole. The French lender, ...