Bloomberg Federal lawmaker George Christensen has threatened to quit the Liberal-National Party if a proposed tax on foreign workers remains in place, the Courier-Mail reported on its website. He told told locals in his Queensland state electorate before national elections in July that he would quit the governing party if the so-called backpacker tax remained, the Courier-Mail said. “I believe ...

  TOKYO/ AP Eighty-eight places in Japan are going to be designated “animation spots” to encourage visitors to seek out the train stations, school campuses, rural shrines and other fairly everyday places where popular “manga” characters are depicted. Such landmarks number in the tens of thousands, given the popularity and volume of “manga” comics in Japan, but the project aims ...

Washington / AFP Two months ago, disagreements at the heart of the US Federal Reserve spilled out into the open, with policymakers squaring off over the near-term threat of inflation. And yet as the Federal Open Market Committee prepares to meet again next Tuesday and Wednesday to review interest rate policy, widespread expectations are that, for a sixth consecutive meeting, ...

  Bloomberg Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, facing a key referendum at home later this year, accused Germany, France and Spain of breaking European Union rules on deficit control and spending in an interview with Corriere della Sera. Nations “will have to justify themselves for failing to respect the rules,” he told the Italian newspaper. “The size of Spain’s deficit ...

  BLOOMBERG Denmark’s government is ready to tackle liquidity shortages that have hit the world’s biggest market for mortgage-backed covered bonds, as it addresses risks that both the industry and investors warn are a serious side-effect of global regulation. Business Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told Bloomberg he will back a proposal by a government-appointed panel to stop forcing mortgage lenders ...

  Bloomberg The U.K. is losing its appeal for Poles seeking work abroad. While Britain is still home to more Polish expatriates than any other European country, Germany has become more of a lure, with about 41,000 moving there in 2015. That’s the fourth consecutive year that Europe’s biggest economy has been more attractive to them than the U.K. In ...

  Montreal / AFP Donors pledged nearly $13 billion on Saturday in the fight to eradicate AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria by 2030, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced at an international conference. “It is my great honor to announce that for the fifth replenishment conference for the Global Fund to end AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, we have reached our goal ...

  Beirut / AFP Syria’s ceasefire was hanging by a thread on Sunday, after tensions escalated between Moscow and Washington over a US-led coalition air strike that killed dozens of Syrian soldiers battling extremists. The truce saw violence drop across Syria for several days after it came into force Monday, but fighting has since erupted on several fronts and besieged ...

  Dubai / Reuters Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Tehran supports any move to stabilise the global oil market and lift prices, the Iranian oil ministry news agency SHANA quoted him as saying on Sunday. “Instability and falling oil prices are harmful to all countries, especially oil producers,” Rouhani was quoted as saying by SHANA. “Tehran welcomes any move aimed ...

  Benghazi / AFP Forces loyal to Libya’s UN-backed unity government launched an offensive on Sunday aimed at retaking key eastern oil ports seized last week by fighters from a rival administration. The Tripoli-based Government of National Accord has struggled to assert its authority over the country since the GNA was formed in December last year. Oil is Libya’s key ...