ALBANY / AP Environmental and public policy groups in New York are calling for a state constitutional amendment that would guarantee residents a right to clean air and water. Environmental Advocates of New York and EffectiveNY are promoting the proposed amendment with online video ads on Thursday featuring children from Hoosick Falls, where water wells have been contaminated by ...

  Bloomberg London’s housing market underperformed the rest of the UK for the first time in eight years as buyers increasingly found themselves stretched by affordability, according to Nationwide Building Society. Home prices in the capital rose 3.7 percent in 2016 from a year earlier, down from 12.2 percent in 2015, the mortgage lender said on Thursday. Across the U.K., ...

  Bloomberg Volkswagen AG bought North American parking-payment operator PayByPhone in the latest move by Europe’s biggest carmaker to expand from manufacturing into mobility services. The purchase of Vancouver-based PayByPhone, which processed more than $250 million in transactions this year, will turn the German company’s Volkswagen Financial Services unit into the leader in mobile payments for parking, the automaker said ...

  Berlin / AFP Britain’s chief financial officers are turning optimistic as they head into the new year, though they intend to be cautious amid the cloudy economic outlook, according to Deloitte. The number of CFOs that are more positive about the prospects for their companies outweigh those who are more pessimistic by the most in 18 months, the fourth-quarter ...

  Berlin / AFP German state rail operator Deutsche Bahn said on Thursday it planned to significantly ramp up cargo transport to China following a record year, using the world’s longest train line in a modern-day revival of the Silk Road route. More than 40,000 containers were transported between the two countries in 2016, up from 35,000 a year earlier ...

  Reuters Most Middle Eastern stock markets closed higher on Thursday after a tumultuous year in which many bourses were hit hard by low oil prices, then recovered in the final few months as the economic outlook improved. Fund managers generally expect a stronger performance in 2017 because of the rebound in oil prices over the past couple of months, ...

  Bloomberg The dollar dropped the most in two weeks while oil retreated from its highest close in 17 months as investors prepared to close out a volatile year for financial markets. US stocks rebounded from the biggest slide in two months. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell for the first time in four days after reaching the highest level ...

  Bloomberg Many investors in retail stocks will be happy to see the back of 2016. But not those who bet on Boohoo.com Plc. The online fashion merchant’s shares have soared about 260 percent in 2016 as fashion-conscious youngsters snapped up garments such as bomber jackets and shoulder dresses for 15 pounds ($18.42) apiece. The stock’s rise is the biggest ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Emirates, the world’s biggest long-haul airline, has taken delivery of its first Rolls-Royce engine-powered Airbus A380 superjumbo and has resolved its dispute with the engine maker over a technical issue. The A380 jet arrived in Dubai on Thursday morning, two days after Airbus said it would delay the delivery of 12 A380s to the airline over ...

  Bloomberg Kate Spade & Co. shares surged the most in more than two years after Dow Jones reported that the luxury handbag maker is working with bankers to explore a sale of the company. The company has been under pressure from shareholders to find an acquirer amid a failure to boost profit margins. It is working with an investment ...