GAMBER / AP The death toll in the eruption of a volcano in western Indonesia rose to seven on Sunday, with two other people in critical condition, as an official warned of more eruptions. Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province blasted volcanic ash as high as 3 kilometers into the sky on Saturday, said National Disaster Management Agency spokesman ...

  Manila/ AFP A South Korean missionary was beaten to death in his home in a shocking attack southeast of the Philippine capital, police said on Sunday. Sim Jae-jok had returned from an early morning jog when he discovered an intruder in his kitchen in the town of Taytay on Friday, said Superintendent Samuel Delorino. The intruder knocked the 57-year-old ...

  Chittagong / AFP Thousands of Bangladeshis were left homeless on Sunday after Cyclone Roanu battered the impoverished southern coastal region, ripping apart flimsy houses and killing at least 24 people. The storm on Saturday ploughed through low-lying villages in the Chittagong and Barisal regions, where residents described seeing metres-high walls of water. Many Bangladeshis were returning safely home on ...

  Berlin / AFP German Chancellor Angela Merkel said some political developments in Turkey were a source of “great concern” and pledged to address them during a visit to the country on Monday. Merkel said she was ready to discuss “all the important questions” with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan when they meet in Istanbul on the sidelines of a ...

  NAYPYIDAW /AP US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday urged Myanmar’s new civilian-led government to complete the Southeast Asian nation’s transition to democracy by implementing further reforms to enshrine free markets, development and human rights. Speaking with Myanmar’s foreign minister and de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, after talks in the capital of Naypyidaw, Kerry pledged continuing ...

Could online lending cause the next financial crisis? While the odds seem overwhelmingly against it, the recent turmoil at LendingClub — a leading online lender — makes it hard not to ask the question. There are some disquieting parallels with subprime mortgages, which seemed beneficial until sloppy and fraudulent lending practices triggered a wider collapse of confidence. Are we about ...

  Campaign for a ‘stay’ or ‘leave’ the European Union (EU) is taking an ugly turn as both sides warn of dire consequences should the UK remain or exit the EU. In fact, both sides blend the scaremongering with facts to canvass votes of the groping voters who may decide the result of referendum. Boris Johnson, the leading ‘leave’ campaign ...

Narayana Kocherlakota I see four different schools of thought about how the economies of the U.S. and much of the developed world should be managed. The challenge for the Federal Reserve and other central bankers is that it’s hard to know who’s right. Let’s call the first group of economists the neutralists. They would say that as long as inflation ...

After months of street protests and political revolt led Brazil’s legislature to suspend Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and put her on trial for fraud, it’s too early to say how the caretaker government will fare in her place. Little-loved interim President Michel Temer will be contending with both the fallout from the country’s toxic corruption scandal and a record economic ...

  BLOOMBERG Abu Dhabi stocks posted their longest losing streak since October amid a slump in trading across Gulf Arab equity markets as investors held out for more than a $1 billion worth of rights issues. The ADX General Index fell 1.1 percent, declining for the sixth straight day. Emirates Telecommunications Group Co., or Etisalat, the largest phone company in ...