Lima / AFP Three soldiers and a civilian were killed, and seven others wounded, in two attacks by guerrillas in the jungles of central Peru, on the eve of presidential elections. Authorities blamed remnants of the Shining Path communist guerrilla group, which was largely crushed in the 1990s but still has members hiding in the jungle. The three soldiers and ...

New Delhi / AFP A massive fire swept through a temple in southern India on Sunday, killing more than 100 people and injuring scores more after they gathered to watch an unofficial fireworks display. Thousands had packed overnight into the Hindu temple in Kerala state where fireworks appear to have landed on an unexploded stash, triggering a blast, in a ...

Istanbul / AFP The world’s Islamic countries began their annual meeting on Sunday in Istanbul, where they are set to focus on the Palestinian cause, conflicts in member states and combating terrorism. The meeting of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) comes once again at a time of turmoil in many Muslim nations, with conflicts in Syria and Yemen ...

Brussels / AFP The Brussels-based IS extremists behind the Paris attacks planned a fresh strike in France but targeted the Belgian capital instead as police closed in, the federal prosecutor said on Sunday. The prosecutor also announced that the so-called “man in the hat” Mohamed Abrini had been charged with “terrorist murders” over the attacks in Brussels last month. Suicide ...

As the current presidential election campaign gathers momentum in the United States, a remarkable distrust of free trade and globalization appears to have gained a voice in mainstream politics. Distrust and anger at unbalanced trade has facilitated the rise of Donald Trump, the Republican Party front-runner, and helped Bernie Sanders in his bid to win the Democratic Party nomination. Opposition ...

The Competitive Enterprise Institute is getting subpoenaed by the attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands to cough up its communications regarding climate change. The scope of the subpoena is quite broad, covering the period from 1997 to 2007, and includes, according to CEI, “a decade’s worth of communications, emails, statements, drafts, and other documents regarding CEI’s work on climate ...

Lisbon / Bloomberg European Central Bank (ECB) officials underlined their readiness to further ease monetary policy as banking, political and sovereign fault lines showed the region remains vulnerable six years after the start of the debt crisis. In Frankfurt, the ECB’s home city, and Brussels, Europe’s nominal capital, policy makers said they’ll take whatever measures are required to help the ...

Beijing / Bloomberg The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) should gradually adjust the amount of deposits that lenders lock away as reserves in accordance with the nation’s international balance of payments situation, according to economists at the central bank. The required reserve ratios (RRR) for commercial lenders should be raised or lowered to meet the country’s macroeconomic demands, researchers led ...

Cernobbio / Reuters The chairman of France’s second-biggest retail bank is more worried about Europe’s banking sector now, in some ways, than when he took the reins at BPCE bank during the depths of the global financial crisis in 2009. Francois Perol said on the sidelines of an economic conference in Italy that negative interest rates in the euro zone ...

Bloomberg Sam Woods, a former UK Treasury official, was appointed as Deputy Governor for regulation at the Bank of England (BOE), replacing Andrew Bailey. Woods — who will continue as the central bank’s executive director of insurance until the end of June — becomes Chief Executive of the Prudential Regulation Authority, the UK’s main banking supervisor, the Treasury in London ...