BERLIN / AP A European Parliament faction that includes Britain’s governing party has ejected a lawmaker from the nationalist Alternative for Germany, which has drawn criticism over members’ remarks suggesting that police could shoot refugees trying to enter Germany. Alternative for Germany, or AfD, won seven European Parliament seats in 2014. Five lawmakers left for a new and more moderate …

  Mali / ap A mine explosion in Mali has killed three French soldiers, in an unusually deadly incident for French anti-terrorist forces in the region. The French Defense Ministry says that soldiers had been approaching Tessalit in northern Mali in a convoy of about 60 vehicles when the lead armored vehicle was hit Tuesday. The Defense Ministry initially reported …

  BRUSSELS / AP Belgian air traffic controllers continued strike action on Wednesday, forcing the cancellation of flights at Brussels airport as it struggles to get back up to capacity after the March 22 suicide bombings. Belgian flag carrier Brussels Airlines said that around 50 of its flights to and from the main international Zaventem airport were canceled. The strike action …

Baghdad / AFP Dozens of Iraqi lawmakers held an overnight sit-in at parliament to protest efforts by powerful political blocs to maintain control of key government posts, MPs said on Wednesday. The demonstration followed Tuesday’s postponement of a vote on a new lineup for the cabinet, which Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi has said should include technocrats instead of the …

  Ukraine / AFP Ukraine’s bickering parliament resumed horse-trading on Wednesday over the makeup of a new pro-EU government headed by the chamber’s speaker VolodymyrGroysman that could be voted on the following day. A senior member of President Petro Poroshenko’s party said that “according to my information, all the agreements have been reached and no further questions remain.” “We will …

Sudan / AFP Among the sprawling thatch huts of Darfur’s Zamzam Camp for displaced civilians, there is little feeling a referendum on administrative status might remedy years of suffering caused by the conflict. The vote on whether Sudan’s restive west should unite its five states into a single region has been touted by Khartoum as proof of stability returning to …

  Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and three other major US banks failed to persuade regulators they could go bankrupt without disrupting the financial system and could now face a tighter leash from Washington after government agencies used one of the most significant post-crisis powers bestowed under the Dodd-Frank Act. The banks—also including Wells Fargo & …

  Bloomberg The challenges that led to the collapse of Chase Bank Kenya Ltd. are isolated and don’t indicate an unstable lending industry or pose a systemic risk, according to the East African nation’s main banking lobby group. Chase Bank, which was placed under receivership on April 7, was the third small-sized lender in nine months to go into statutory …

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG, Europe’s biggest investment bank, hired James Boyle from Citigroup Inc. as global co-head of its equity-derivatives business following a slump in the unit’s sales, according to two people familiar with the decision. Boyle, who is based in Hong Kong, will also be head of equities for the Asia Pacific region, said the people, who asked …

  Bloomberg An agreement between Italian officials and bank executives to create a multibillion-euro fund to offload bad loans is a step in the right direction, say analysts, but the pact may not be enough to reassure investors that the pain for Italy’s troubled banking sector is over. Banks, insurers and institutional investors agreed to create a vehicle named Atlante …