BLOOMBERG As Governor Henri Falcon takes his morning jog through Barquisimeto, the hub of Venezuela’s farming heartland, he crosses a bleak landscape. It’s not yet dawn and hundreds of perspiring shoppers are lining up for food, neighborhoods are dark from rolling blackouts and hospitals so crowded that the sick share beds. Falcon is a rarity in a deeply polarized country: ...

Tunis / AFP Government neglect in central Tunisia, where poverty and unemployment rates are several times the national average, risks undermining the gains of its revolution and creating a breeding ground for extremism, experts say. Five years after Tunisia’s popular uprising, which set the tone for the momentous Arab Spring wave of protests, the wealth gap between its impoverished interior ...

Istanbul / AFP A summit next week between Turkey and the European Union billed as crucial for combatting Europe’s migration crisis should not just be about migrants but also discuss Ankara’s relations with the bloc, a Turkish official said on Thursday. The March 7 meeting in Brussels is seen as a crucial chance for EU and Turkish leaders to take ...

Tehran / AFP Iran warned on Thursday that its Gulf Arab rivals were jeopardising Lebanon’s stability by blacklisting the leading force behind its government, Hezbollah, as a terror group. Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said that the Shiite militant group, which is one of Iran’s closest allies, was a bulwark against terrorism in the region. “We are proud of ...

Manila / AFP Militants fighting in the name of the IS group are escalating attacks in the southern Philippines, analysts said, deepening fears for the volatile region after its main Muslim rebel group failed to seal a peace pact. Gunmen who have pledged allegiance to the extremists controlling vast swathes of Iraq and Syria have instigated a series of deadly ...

Islamabad / AFP A top Pakistani official has said for the first time publicly that the Afghan Taliban’s leadership enjoys a safe haven inside his country, which Islamabad uses as a “lever” to pressure the group into talks with Kabul. The admission by Pakistan’s foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz comes after years of official denials by Islamabad that it offers ...

London / Bloomberg U.K. house prices rose for an eighth month in February as rental investors rushed to purchase homes before a tax increase, Nationwide Building Society said. The average price of a home climbed 0.3 percent from January to 196,930 pounds ($277,000), the lender said in a statement on Thursday. The annual rate of growth accelerated to 4.8 percent ...

Bloomberg Accor SA, the biggest hotel operator in Europe, and Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co. are among companies considering bids for Carlson’s hotel group, which includes the Radisson and Park Plaza brands, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group could fetch about $2 billion in a sale, and a buyer could be chosen as soon ...

BERLIN / Bloomberg Vonovia SE, the German property company that last month failed in an attempt to buy its largest competitor, said full-year profit more than doubled after it added properties and tapped new revenue sources. Funds from operations excluding sales, a measure of a real estate company’s ability to generate cash, rose to €608 million ($660 million) from €286.6 ...

MUMBAI / Bloomberg A rusty six-story steel structure surrounded by tin-sheet huts stands on a prime plot overlooking one of Mumbai’s largest open spaces of greenery: The horse-racing track in the city’s plush Mahalaxmi area. What was to be a soaring luxury skyscraper from DB Realty Ltd. has been languishing for more than five years, with the developer’s website still ...