Bloomberg PepsiCo Inc. posted first-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates after North American snack sales rose, helped by price increases. Earnings were 89 cents a share, excluding some items, the Purchase, New York-based company said in a statement on Monday. Analysts estimated 81 cents, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Sales fell 2.9 percent to $11.9 billion, matching analysts’ ...

  Bloomberg Dilma Rousseff’s presidency is hanging by a thread after Brazil’s lower house of Congress voted in favor of her impeachment, a decision that’s likely to cheer investors just as it threatens to bring down the curtain on 13 years of leftist rule. The opposition garnered 367 votes, 25 more than the two-thirds majority it needed to send the ...

  NEW YORK / AFP US presidential hopefuls launched a final campaign swing through New York on Monday on the eve of the state’s most decisive primary in decades as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump lead the polls and their rivals fight to catch up. Registered Democrats and Republicans go to the polls in the country’s fourth most populous state ...

  Moscow / AP The powerful chief of Russia’s equivalent to the FBI on Monday called for sweeping new rights restrictions, including curbing Internet freedoms and making it illegal to question Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. The head of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin backed a radical crackdown citing the need to counteract the “destructive” influence of the United ...

  Tripoli / AFP Libya’s parliament was set on Monday for a crucial confidence vote on a new unity government, as Britain’s Philip Hammond became the latest top diplomat to land in Tripoli in support of the UN-backed administration. Hammond flew into Tripoli on a surprise trip, hot on the heels of visits last week by the foreign ministers of ...

  MINAMIASO / AP US airlifts were delivering water, bread, ready-to-eat food and other emergency supplies on Monday to a remote area of southern Japan stricken by two powerful earthquakes, as local rescuers searched for 10 people still reported missing. Authorities said at least 42 people died and more than 1,000 were injured in the quakes on Thursday and early ...

  Beijing / AFP Beijing landed a military plane on a disputed South China Sea reef it has built up into an artificial island, officials said on Monday, in the first confirmation of such a flight. An air force plane landed on Fiery Cross reef in the Spratlys archipelago on Sunday to evacuate sick workers, a news report posted online ...

This week, U.S. President Barack Obama will dive into a nest of vipers as venomous as anything Republicans can offer: Britain’s debate over whether to leave the European Union. As far as campaigners for “Brexit” are concerned, he is a most unwelcome guest. Yet Obama is right to speak up. The U.S. has an interest in Britain remaining in the ...

  Repeated calls of International Monetary Fund (IMF) for all countries to support research and development (R&D) to promote innovation that could help avert slowing growth in the global economy, are essential and badly needed if the world wants to avoid the current economic downturn. While urging for structural reforms, Fund’s operational efforts should be geared towards countries’ shared priorities. ...

  Catherine Putz SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS The International Monetary Fund released its world economic outlook recently, and the news isn’t good for Central Asia. According to the IMF, recovery will be put off until at least 2017, for reasons frequent readers will find familiar: the Russian recession and low oil prices. “The economic outlook for the Commonwealth of Independent ...