Paris / AFP Security forces responded with tear gas on Thursday as French students protesting proposed labour reforms hurled bottles at riot police in Paris and the western city of Nantes. The reforms, which were significantly watered down under pressure from a wave of protests, were adopted earlier Thursday by the cabinet of an increasingly unpopular President Francois Hollande, who ...

Bloomberg Richard Dearlove, former head of Britain’s MI6 overseas spying operation, said the security cost of leaving the European Union “would be low,” explicitly rejecting Home Secretary Theresa May’s argument for staying in the bloc. Following Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in Brussels, whether EU membership enhances or harms the safety of British people has become the top issue in the debate ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank handed €7.3 billion ($8.2 billion) to euro-area banks in the seventh round of a program aimed at boosting lending to companies and consumers, shortly before it starts a new and more generous plan. The take-up in the targeted longer-term refinancing operation compares with €18.3 billion the ECB lent in a similar operation in December and ...

Bloomberg Russia’s ruble retreated for a second day on falling crude prices, while ING Groep NV said the drop would be steeper without demand from companies converting export revenue to pay a 1 trillion ruble ($14.5 billion) monthly tax bill. The currency fell 0.3 percent against the dollar to 68.9410 by 11:32 a.m. in Moscow, extending Wednesday’s 1.8 percent decline ...

Bloomberg As Britain ponders its future in the European Union, investors are betting an amount almost the size of Iceland’s economy on the pound falling to levels last seen in the 1980s. At least 11 billion pounds ($15.5 billion) has been wagered this year on options that would profit if sterling fell to or below $1.3502, a 4 percent drop ...

Bloomberg Two days after IS attacks on Brussels, European Union ministers are trying to overcome their divisions and convince citizens that they can stop the wave of terrorism as police hunt for a new suspect possibly involved in the bombings. As Belgian police continue their search for the surviving perpetrators, EU interior ministers meet in Brussels on Thursday afternoon to ...

Bloomberg With a combination of defiance, sadness and anger, people in Brussels tried to return to normality a day after the terrorist massacre that many feared was coming. Machine-gun wielding soldiers guarded subway entrances and searched commuters’ bags and coats before they were allowed to travel as suspects in Tuesday’s bombings remained at large. Many people followed advice to work ...

London / AFP A British man who sparked outrage on Twitter with a message about confronting a Muslim woman over the Brussels attacks has been arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred, London police said on Thursday. “I confronted a Muslim woman yesterday in Croydon. I asked her to explain Brussels. She said ‘Nothing to do with me’. A mealy ...

Beijing / AFP Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to discuss the deteriorating situation on the Korean peninsula with his US counterpart Barack Obama when he visits Washington for a nuclear security summit next week, a senior Beijing official said on Thursday. North Korea’s most recent atomic test in January and a series of rocket launches are likely to be ...

Seoul / AFP North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has claimed an “historic” advance in the country’s nuclear strike capability with the successful test of a solid-fuel rocket engine, state media said on Thursday. The announcement came as South Korean President Park Geun-hye ordered the military to “strengthen readiness” in the wake of multiple North Korean threats to launch nuclear and ...