Bloomberg Office rents in London’s skyscrapers rose almost 10 percent in the second half of last year as city-center vacancies fell to a 15-year low, according to an index compiled by broker Knight Frank LLP, and are set to continue climbing. Annual skyscraper rents in the U.K. capital surged to $126 per square foot because of rising demand for ...

  REUTERS On a stretch of barren coast 550 km south of the capital Muscat, workers at a ship repair yard swarm over cargo vessels from around the world, labour that will help to determine Oman’s fate in an era of cheap oil. The yard, owned by the government’s Oman Drydock Co and operated by South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & ...

  New York / AFP Billionaire Donald Trump and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton won sweeping victories in the New York primary, bolstering their bids to secure the Republican and Democratic nominations for the White House. It was the most decisive New York primary in decades and leaves self-styled democratic socialist Bernie Sanders with a tough decision on how ...

  PARIS / AP France’s presidency says that President Barack Obama will meet with French, British, Italian and German leaders in Hannover next week for discussions expected to touch on IS, Libya and migration. The statement released Wednesday gave few details except that Obama, French leader Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Britain’s David Cameron and Italy’s Matteo Renzi would ...

  Rome / AFP Austria will reintroduce controls along its border with Italy unless the migrant flow through the area is drastically reduced, Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz warned in an interview. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi last week insisted Italy was not facing an “invasion” after a spike in migrant boat crossings from Libya exacerbated fears it could become the ...

  Brussels / AFP NATO and Russia ran up against “profound disagreements” over Ukraine and other issues as their ambassadors met on Wednesday for the first time since 2014, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said. The two sides agreed to keep communicating following the meeting of the NATO-Russia Council, which has been on ice since the alliance cut practical ties with ...

  Berlin / AFP Germany asked neighbouring Belgium on Wednesday to temporarily shutter two ageing nuclear plants near their border over safety concerns. Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks requested that the 40-year-old Tihange 2 and Doel 3 reactors be turned off “until the resolution of outstanding security issues”. The reactor pressure vessels at both sites have shown signs of metal degradation, ...

  Brasília / AFP Brazil’s Supreme Court was due to rule on Wednesday on whether former leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva can take up his post as chief advisor to embattled President Dilma Rousseff. The top panel’s decision is expected just days after lawmakers overwhelmingly authorized impeachment proceedings against Rousseff, plunging Brazil into deep political crisis. Rousseff had named ...

  London / AFP US President Barack Obama will be thrust into the eye of a boisterous British debate over European Union membership when he touches down in London on Thursday for a royal-filled visit. The US president’s four-day trip—perhaps his last to Britain before leaving office next year—comes ahead of a June 23 referendum when Britons will be asked ...

  Bloomberg Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the country’s largest mortgage lender, has tightened criteria for home loans to foreigners just as the central bank warned buying by Chinese posed an ‘indirect risk’. Commonwealth Bank, which accounts for one in every four mortgages in the country, will no longer approve applications that cite self-employed foreign income, it said in a note ...