Bloomberg Production at three Total SA refineries in France was disrupted following a vote by workers to stop the plants amid discontent over the government’s handling of a proposed labour law. A number of production units at the Gonfreville refinery in Normandy, Feyzin near Lyon and at Donges, close to Nantes, have been shut down, industry group Union Francaise ...

  Bloomberg Norway’s sovereign wealth fund may be forced to step up divestments of coal companies and could face a wider ban on investments in other fossil fuels such as oil sands. A majority of parties in Norway’s parliament want to tighten guidelines that prevent the $850 billion fund from owning companies that base more than 30 percent of their ...

Bloomberg Switzerland is preparing for a final round of negotiations with the European Union on immigration in the 13 days following the U.K. vote on EU membership, Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reported, without saying how it got the information. Switzerland’s chief negotiator with the EU, Jacques de Watteville, informed the government on Wednesday about his plan for talks on limiting the ...

  San Juan, Puerto Rico / AP Holders of bonds from Puerto Rico’s Government Development Bank are suing to challenge aspects of a debt-moratorium law that island officials say is crucial to maintaining essential services as the U.S. territory struggles under a nearly $70 billion debt load. The amended federal lawsuit filed late Friday in the U.S. District Court in San ...

  New York / AFP A guitar given to Elvis Presley by his father in 1969 went under the hammer for $334,000 in New York during an auction that also saw a Michael Jackson vest fetch $256,000. Vernon Presley is said to have changed the finish of the Gibson Dove acoustic guitar to ebony after his son earned his black belt ...

  Bloomberg Brazilian swap rates slid, even after consumer prices rose faster than forecast, in an early vote of confidence that the new administration will be able to slow inflation. Swap rates on the contract maturing in January 2018, a gauge of expectations for interest-rate moves, declined 0.05 percentage point to 12.72 percent, even as inflation accelerated more than all ...

  Bloomberg The electric-car revolution is here and Chile is looking to ramp up production of the lithium the industry needs for batteries. Or it would be, but for a bitter dispute between the government and the former son-in-law of a military dictator. After Chile’s government moved to withdraw its license to exploit one of the world’s largest deposits, Soc. ...

  New York / AFP Media mogul Sumner Redstone has ousted the head of Viacom from a trust with the power to take over his business interests, putting his daughter in position to control his $40 bn empire, a source close to the matter told AFP. Redstone, 92, is the controlling shareholder of Viacom and CBS whose failing health has set ...

  The British electorate does not need Americans to tell them how to vote in the June 23 referendum, and I wouldn’t dare try. I have always had great admiration for the British people — and great respect for the country’s democratic traditions. But from across the Atlantic, we Yanks are watching the campaign closely — and many of us ...

  Ramesh Ponnuru Interest rates are on the way up, and policy makers at the Federal Reserve want to dispel any doubts you have about it. In the minutes from the Fed’s latest meeting, “most participants” said that raising rates in June “likely would be appropriate” if the economy continues to improve. Presidents of two of the regional Feds said ...