Bloomberg Germany is seeking tighter control over foreign investment in European companies, in a sign of a growing protectionist reaction to China’s appetite for overseas acquisitions. Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel on Monday reopened a review of the takeover of Aixtron SE, which supplies equipment to the semiconductor industry, by China’s Grand Chip Investment GmbH. That follows calls by Gabriel, ...

  Bloomberg Volkswagen AG is facing renewed pressure to repair the damage caused by its diesel emissions scandal, with the European Union calling on the carmaker to start compensating affected consumers and show clear proof that vehicles will be fixed within the coming year. VW “should clearly identify what will be offered to consumers and this in a similar manner” ...

  Brussels / AFP Belgium is unable to sign off on a landmark EU-Canada free trade deal after Wallonia and other regional administrations refused to give the federal government the go-ahead, Prime Minister Charles Michel said on Monday. “We are not in a position to sign CETA,” Michel said after brief talks with Belgium’s regional leaders in Brussels broke up ...

  Bloomberg A property company managed by Schroders Plc is bidding for an office building in Frankfurt, anticipating the banking fallout from Brexit will boost values in the German financial center. The London-based property investor isn’t alone preparing for an exodus from the British capital, with both CBRE Global Investors LLC and Standard Life Plc seeking to purchase office space ...

  Qayyarah / AFP The smoke from fires lit by IS extremists to provide cover from air strikes has painted the northern Iraqi sky black, providing a dramatic backdrop for the Mosul offensive. The use of smoke in warfare is likely as old as war itself but the masks and technology available to Iraqi forces in this conflict leave civilians, ...

  Baghdad / AFP The IS group “executed” five Iraqis, including members of the security forces, during ongoing fighting in the western town of Rutba, army officers said on Monday. Extremist fighters launched an attack on Rutba, a remote but strategic town near the Jordanian border in Anbar province, early on Sunday. They briefly seized the mayor’s office before being ...

  Baghdad / AFP Iraq’s joint operations command on Monday denied Turkey was participating in military operations to retake the northern city of Mosul from the IS group. “The spokesman of the Joint Operations Command denies Turkish participation of any kind in operations for the liberation of Nineveh,” a statement said, referring to the Iraqi province of which Mosul is ...

  Jérémie / AFP Rickety structures made of sheet metal and scrap wood are clustered along the road to the Haitian city of Jeremie, which still hasn’t seen any aid nearly three weeks after Hurricane Matthew. In a scene that is eerily similar to the devastation in Port-au-Prince after the 2010 earthquake, when hundreds of thousands of survivors had to ...

  Moscow / AFP Russia, blaming failures by the US-led coalition and meagre hopes for diplomacy, on Monday ruled out early moves to renew its ceasefire in Aleppo after a brief truce ended at the weekend. “The question of renewing the humanitarian pause is not relevant now,” deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told Interfax news agency, in Moscow’s first official ...

  Donald Trump and his populist, nationalist counterparts in Europe are often portrayed as a threat to democracy. Their supporters argue that establishment politicians and technocrats are an even bigger threat because they listen only to the special interests that feed them. Could it be, then, that democracy in its current American and European forms is a threat to itself? ...