Lisbon / AFP Portugal kept its much-needed access to EU financial help after an European Central Bank-approved credit agency maintained its rating of Portuguese debt at investment grade level. Toronto-based DBRS announced it had kept Portugal’s rating at “BBB” level, with a “stable” perspective. “The rating reflects Portugal’s eurozone membership, favourable public debt maturity structure, and reduced vulnerabilities, following ...

  Berlin / AFP German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said he didn’t understand how Volkswagen bosses could defend their bonuses after a huge emissions-rigging scandal plunged the carmaker into global turmoil, according to an interview with Die Welt published on Sunday. The criticism comes after Volkswagen revealed this week that its top executives would be paid a total of €63.2 ...

  Madrid / AFP A wind of change is blowing on Spain’s renewables: companies and investment funds have been on a buying spree, taking advantage of the know-how and growth prospects of a sector still limping out of a crisis. In 2015 “total transactions reached €5 billion ($5.7 billion)”, says Joao Saint-Aubyn, a Madrid-based energy expert at global consultancy Roland Berger. ...

  Omaha, Neb / AP   Berkshire Hathaway’s idiosyncrasies were on display this weekend, as tens of thousands of people filled an arena to listen to Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger talk business for several hours at the conglomerate’s annual meeting. No other company can match the crowds who attend Berkshire’s meeting, the 51-year-tenure of its top two executives or its ...

  Bloomberg A change to drier weather in Argentina is paring the biggest monthly gain for soybeans since 2014 after floods damaged the country’s crops. Dry weather will prevail in Argentina, the world’s third-largest exporter of soybeans, through early next week, allowing harvesting to accelerate, MDA Weather Services said in a report on Saturday. The harvest is 24 percent complete, ...

  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 ...

  BEIJING / AP Taiwanese officials have protested Malaysia’s deportation of 32 of the self-ruled island’s nationals to China to face wire fraud charges. The deportation follows the sending of nearly four dozen Taiwanese from Kenya to China last month, a case that has raised concerns Beijing is exerting diplomatic pressure over the island it considers its own territory. The Taiwanese ...

  Bashir / AFP Iraqi Kurdish and Turkmen Shiite forces have recaptured the town of Bashir from the IS extremist group, officials said. Pressure for an operation to retake the town had grown in March after IS launched a chemical attack from Bashir on the nearby town of Taza that killed at least three children. Kurdish peshmerga forces and Turkmen ...