Beijing / AFP Chinese authorities are exploring new ways of imposing controls on the Internet, state-run media cited experts as saying on Monday, after reports said state-owned enterprises may be encouraged to take stakes in video streaming websites. The Communist country restricts access to foreign websites including Google, Facebook and Twitter with a vast control network dubbed the Great ...

  Taipei / AFP Taipei-listed Apple suppliers got a boost on Monday after a report the smartphone maker has placed a bullish order for its iPhone 7 series, telling suppliers to kickstart production. The unveiling of the next-generation iPhone, expected in September, will be a key moment for the Silicon Valley giant as questions swirl over whether it can keep ...

  Bloomberg Greek lawmakers have approved additional austerity measures required to unlock more emergency loans from the euro area, ahead of a meeting of finance ministers that will assess the country’s compliance with its bailout program and determine the scope for debt relief. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras secured backing for a series of measures ranging from the taxation of clothing ...

  Paris / AFP EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici on Monday hailed a new batch of Greek austerity measures as “key” to unlocking bailout funds. “A key step has been taken… towards the conclusion of the first stage of the Greek programme,” Moscovici said in Paris, a day after Greek lawmakers voted in favour of spending cuts and tax ...

  Bloomberg Bayer AG made an unsolicited $62 billion all-cash offer to acquire Monsanto Co. and create the world’s biggest supplier of farm chemicals and genetically modified seeds, disclosing the terms of its bid amid investors’ growing concern that it might overpay. Bayer offered $122 per share in an all-cash bid in its May 10 written proposal, the Leverkusen-based company ...

  BLOOMBERG Growth in France’s private-sector economy accelerated more than analysts anticipated in May, despite a continued contraction in manufacturing, as services expanded at the fastest rate in seven months. A Purchasing Managers Index for both industries rose to 51.1 from 50.2 in April, London-based Markit Economics said on Monday. That compares with a median forecast of 50.4 in a ...

  Bloomberg The U.K. faces a yearlong recession if it leaves the European Union, according to a Treasury forecast issued as the government tries to persuade undecided voters that the risks of a so-called Brexit are too great. The Treasury’s assessment of the short-term impacts of a vote to quit the bloc, to be published Monday morning, offers two possibilities. ...

  Los Angeles / AP Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is breaking with the Obama administration and House lawmakers over a plan to restructure Puerto Rico’s $70 billion in debt, saying the legislation would make “a terrible situation even worse.” The Vermont senator writes in a letter released on Monday said that the deal reached last week between the White House ...

  Hanoi, Vietnam / AFP President Barack Obama said on Monday he remained confident the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal would be ratified in the United States despite strong political opposition in Washington. “The reason I remain confident is it’s the right thing to do,” he told reporters in Vietnam where he is currently on a three-day visit. “I have not ...

    Bloomberg This month, Telefonica SA was able to raise the price of landline phone service in Argentina for the first time since 2000 — by a whopping 192 percent. The increase in the line-rental fee to about 38 pesos ($2.70) a month from 13 pesos in the carrier’s second-largest Latin American market comes after 16 years of government-frozen ...