Bloomberg The UK should avoid any drastic steps to cut corporate taxes, or similar measures, as it prepares to start talks on leaving the European Union, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Loefven said. The premier of the largest Nordic economy also said the U.K.’s exit from the 28-nation bloc “shouldn’t take longer than necessary.” “But if the UK wants some …

  New York / AFP US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is nearing a deal to buy US biotech firm Medivation, which specializes in cancer treatments, for nearly $14 billion, US media reported. Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal said the deal could be made public as early as Monday. The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said it could be …

  Frankfurt / AFP German auto giant Volkswagen said on Monday it would halt production at six plants for several days as a legal dispute with two key suppliers deepened. Around 27,700 workers at factories in Emden, Zwickau, Kassel, Salzgitter, Brunswick, and the firm’s home base of Wolfsburg would see their work hours slashed by the end of August, the …

  Frankfurt / AFP Executives at Uniper, a spin-off business uniting German energy giant EON’s fossil fuel operations, said on Monday the new firm is in good shape for a September stock market debut. “We are very close to the goal,” chief executive Klaus Schaefer told journalists on a conference call. Uniper expects to publish its prospectus in early September …

  Bloomberg Russian wheat prices extended a rebound, capping the best run since April, as farmers charged more for high-protein grain after rains damaged crops there and in major competitor France. Wheat for loading at Black Sea ports rose 1.2 percent from a week earlier to $170 a metric ton as of Friday, Dmitry Rylko, director general of Moscow-based Institute …

  Bloomberg Poland plans to keep its 2017 budget deficit below the European Union’s limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product even as a report showed the government revising down its outlook for economic growth. The shortfall is planned at 2.9 percent of GDP, the Finance Ministry said on its Twitter account on Monday. That compares with a 2.6 …

  Brussels / AFP Turkey said on Monday the Syrian border region must be “completely cleansed” from the IS group, after a weekend suicide bombing in Gaziantep blamed on the extremists left at least 54 dead. In a sign of a key battle to come, Syrian rebel fighters have amassed on the Turkish side of the border in preparation for an …

  Tripoli / AFP Fighters of Libya’s unity government, backed by US air strikes, have recaptured more ground from extremists holed up in the centre of the coastal city of Sirte, loyalist forces said on Monday. “Our forces have retaken the internal security building used as a prison by the IS” group, as well as a courthouse, the Al-Naga district …

  Beijing / AFP China’s state broadcaster has questioned the authenticity of the video of Syrian boy Omran which went viral worldwide, alleging it may have been faked as part of a Western “propaganda war”. The video showed the stunned-looking four-year-old covered in blood and dust after an air strike in Aleppo last week, with the US State Department calling …

  Nairobi / AFP With a peace deal unravelling in South Sudan and extremist attacks continuing in Somalia, US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi on Monday. The two discussed regional security and terrorism before Kerry met with the foreign ministers of Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda for talks focusing on a …