Bloomberg The total value of fines handed out by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority fell by almost 75 percent in 2018, after a bumper year in which it had secured penalties against the likes of Deutsche Bank AG, Merrill Lynch International and Rio Tinto Plc. The regulator handed out 60.5 million pounds ($76.6 million) in fines in 2018, more than ...

Bloomberg Acorda Therapeutics Inc rose the most since October after the US Food and Drug Administration approved its therapy for Parkinson’s disease. The drug, which will be sold under the name Inbrija, is an inhaled version of levodopa, an existing therapy that treats the effects of the neurodegenerative disorder. Acorda declined to say how it plans to price the product, ...

Bloomberg Alcoa Corp will further curtail production at a Canadian smelter as the biggest US aluminum producer faces a shortage of workers amid a dispute with unionised workers and the impact of US tariffs on shipments of the metal. The Pittsburgh-based company said it will curtail half of the one operating potline’s 138,000 metric tonne capacity at its majority-owned Aluminerie ...

Bloomberg Canadian gross domestic product grew at the fastest pace in five months on a lift from manufacturing, while oil made an unexpected contribution as prices began to fall for Alberta crude. Output grew 0.3 percent in October, Statistics Canada said from Ottawa, faster than the median forecast in a Bloomberg economist survey of 0.2 percent. Factory production expanded 0.7 ...

Bloomberg As the partial US government shutdown enters a third day, lawmakers have left Washington for the Christmas holiday with no sign of urgency to resolve the fight over President Donald Trump’s demand for border wall money. Unlike shutdowns of the past, Congress and the White House aren’t racing to reopen the government. Offices of congressional leaders who are responsible ...

Bloomberg Suicide bombers struck the Libyan Foreign Ministry’s headquarters in Tripoli, killing three people, officials said, in the latest blow to efforts to stabilise the war-ravaged North African nation. Gunmen opened fire on the ministry and one of them blew himself up, the Foreign Ministry said. At least 18 others were wounded, Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha said in a televised ...

Bloomberg At least 43 people were killed and 10 injured after militants detonated a car bomb before storming government offices in a building in Afghan capital Kabul, said Wahid Majrooh, a spokesman of the nation’s Ministry of Public Health. The gunmen also took hostages in the building of the National Authority for Disabled People and Martyrs’ Families, said Najib Danish, ...

Bloomberg A federal judge in Washington awarded $500 million in damages to the family of Otto Warmbier, an Ohio student who died after being detained in North Korea for 17 months. The wrongful death lawsuit was filed in April against the North Korean government by Warmbier’s parents, Fred and Cynthia Warmbier, accusing it of torturing their son. North Korea didn’t ...

Bloomberg Mongolia’s effort to get its citizens to pay taxes by enrolling them in a lottery is delivering a big payout — for the government. The north Asian country between Russia and China has expanded its tax base by almost half since 2016, according to government statistics, partly by printing a lottery ticket on every retail receipt when the 10 ...

China may be suffering from President Donald Trump’s trade war. A substantial number of Chinese companies are laying off staff, cutting wages and reducing capital expenditures. Prices are being slashed on goods subject to tariffs. And China’s export growth has slowed. Of course, US consumers and manufacturers will also get hurt by the tariffs. And there’s a chance that China’s ...