Bloomberg Germany and Austria’s prospective breakup of their shared €200 billion-($227 billion) power market is vexing traders and companies that say splitting the union will push up manufacturing costs and drive away investment. Lechwerke AG, a German utility, is resisting supplying its Austrian clients with longer-dated power contracts because it doesn’t know how much to charge them if the ...

  Bloomberg President Dilma Rousseff promised increased spending on her party’s most popular social program and took other measures aimed at her electoral base, less than two weeks before Brazil’s Senate is expected to vote in favor of the impeachment process she calls a coup d’etat. At a rally of labour unions and Workers’ Party faithful in Sao Paulo on ...

  Bloomberg After falling for three months, the dollar is set to rebound, if this historical seasonal chart is any guide. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the greenback versus 10 peers, has appreciated in May in every year but one since 2007, according to a Bloomberg Seasonality Chart. That’s the best record among the 12 months. Analysts’ theories ...

  San Francisco / AFP US oil services companies Halliburton and Baker Hughes announced they were calling off their massive multibillion-dollar proposed merger that had met strong resistance from regulators. The deal, announced in November 2014, foresaw a $34.6 billion takeover by Halliburton of its rival, creating a powerful competitor to global industry leader Schlumberger. “Challenges in obtaining remaining regulatory approvals ...

  Bloomberg Puerto Rico will default on a $422 million bond payment for its Government Development Bank, escalating what is turning into the biggest crisis ever in the $3.7 trillion market that U.S. state and local entities use to access financing. Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla invoked a debt moratorium law approved last month, saying during a televised address that the ...

  Geneva / AFP Fresh air strikes pummelled the Syrian city of Aleppo on Monday as US Secretary of State John Kerry made a desperate bid to salvage a two-month ceasefire in the war-torn country. The top US diplomat gave some of his most downbeat comments yet after meeting the UN peace envoy on Syria, saying the conflict was “in ...

  Baghdad / AFP A car bomb targeting Shiite pilgrims killed at least 14 people in southern Baghdad on Monday, security and medical sources said. An Iraqi security command said a suicide bomber detonated the explosives-rigged vehicle, while other officials said it was a car bomb. At least 14 people were killed and at least 41 others wounded, security and medical ...

  KUWAIT CITY / AP The United Nations envoy for Yemen says the country’s government delegation has suspended its participation in peace talks aimed at ending fighting in the impoverished Arab country. U.N. envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a statement that the Yemeni government stopped participating in plenary sessions held in Kuwait on Sunday because of developments in the ...

  ISTANBUL / AP The Turkish military said on Monday that artillery shelling and drone attacks by the US-led coalition have struck IS positions in Syria and killed a total of 63 militants. The state-owned Anadolu Agency said the strikes took out multiple rocket launchers and gun positions. Four drones deployed from the Incirlik air base, a launching point for US-led ...

  Diyarbakir / AFP One Turkish soldier was killed and 20 others were wounded when a car bomb blamed on Kurdish militants exploded in the Kurdish-majority southeast, the army said on Monday. In a statement, the army said a total of 23 people were wounded in the blast which took place late on Sunday, 20 of them soldiers and three ...