New York / AFP An explosion rocked one of the most fashionable neighborhoods of New York on Saturday night, injuring 29 people, one seriously, a week after America’s financial capital marked the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Mayor Bill de Blasio indicated the blast was not accidental, even if there was no known link to terrorism. “We believe it ...

  Lagos / AFP Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has come under fire from critics after admitting part of his recent “Change Begins With Me” speech was copied from US President Barack Obama’s 2008 victory speech. Buhari announced the social initiative earlier this month urging Nigerians to stop bribing and littering in a programme that continues his “war against indiscipline” launched ...

  AWEIL / AFP South Sudan’s government is challenging a new report by a U.S.-based watchdog group that says the country’s leaders have amassed wealth abroad amid a conflict in which tens of thousands have been killed. A spokesman for President Salva Kiir says the allegations by The Sentry report “can only jeopardize the pursuit of peace and stability in my ...

  Moscow / AFP Russians went to the polls Sunday in parliamentary polls, with parties loyal to President Vladimir Putin set to maintain their dominance despite the longest economic crisis of his rule. The nationwide election follows a tumultuous few years that have seen the country seize the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine, plunge into its worst standoff with the West since ...

  The betting is that the Federal Reserve won’t raise interest rates at this week’s meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, its key policymaking body. There are already complaints that the Fed, which cut short-term rates to near zero in late 2008, is waiting too long to reverse low rates. Last December, the Fed increased rates by a quarter ...

  Data is the raw material we use as the basis for analysis. Investors demand it. Baseball fans love it. Quants live for it. Pollsters depend on it. Data is the difference between anecdote and evidence, between opinion and facts, between life and death (ask a surgeon or airline pilot). Data drives the economic world around us. It is how ...

  By speeding the demise of coal, which is far dirtier, cheap natural gas has done as much to reduce carbon emissions as any government regulation. But the returns are already diminishing: Natural gas also emits carbon dioxide, and this year for the first time the amount will exceed that of coal in the U.S. The most efficient way to ...

  On Saturday, donors to the Global Fund pledged nearly $13billion to eradicate the three deadly maladies — AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria — by 2030. The money is expected to help save 8 million lives. The Global Fund demonstrates that collective effort and global commitment can do wonders. Since 2002, the Fund has spent $30 billion to fight the three ...

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabian stocks declined the most in the Gulf as the kingdom’s equities traded for the first time in a week, tracking a selloff across developing nations as investors weigh the chances of a U.S. interest rate increase this year. The Tadawul All Share Index dropped 1.9 percent on Sunday as it reopened after a week-long religious holiday. ...

  Bloomberg Amid all the hemorrhaging in dividend stocks whacked by higher bond rates, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says investors are missing a chance in another group that usually benefits. They’re referring to the companies poised to gain the most from a rate hike, a group dominated by financial firms such as Bank of America Corp. and Bank of New ...