Malé / AFP The Maldives angrily quit the Commonwealth on Thursday after years of wrangling over its human rights record since the toppling of its first democratically-elected leader four years ago. The troubled honeymoon island nation said it had been treated “unjustly and unfairly” by the bloc, a voluntary association of more than 50 countries, many of them former ...

Moscow / AFP Russian President Vladimir Putin will seal a deal with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an upcoming visit to deliver Moscow’s most advanced air defence system, the Kremlin said on Thursday. “An agreement on the delivery of S-400 ‘Triumph’ anti-missile defence systems and other deals will be signed as a result of the talks,” Russian news agencies ...

  Bloomberg Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. shares tumbled in Hong Kong to the lowest level in more than seven years after Asia’s biggest international carrier scrapped its profit outlook and said it is conducting a “critical review” of its business. The stock fell 4.7 percent to HK$10.26 on Thursday, the lowest level since July 2009, making Cathay Pacific the day’s ...

  Bloomberg Qantas Airways Ltd. will begin daily flights between Sydney and Beijing next year, returning to the route for the first time since the global financial crisis, as a record number of Chinese tourists visit Australia. Daily services, code-shared with Chinese partner China Eastern, will start Jan. 25 next year, the Australian airline said in a statement Thursday. Qantas ...

  Bloomberg Boeing Co. landed a deal to sell a dozen 787 Dreamliners to China Southern Airlines Co., bolstering support for its marquee carbon-fiber jetliner in an otherwise tough market for twin-aisle aircraft. The order by Asia’s biggest carrier by passenger volume is valued at $3.2 billion according to list prices, although carriers typically negotiate discounts. It comes less than ...

  Bloomberg Dutch food giant Unilever, reportedly caught up in a pricing war with a British supermarket chain, warned Thursday the falling pound will likely hike its prices in Britain. Releasing stagnant third-quarter figures, the huge multinational, which supplies popular brand names like Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream, Knorr soups and Hellmann’s mayonnaise, acknowledged it was a “tough market” globally. There ...

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabia is exploring the possibility of granting more licenses to foreign banks and easing restrictions on their operations to boost growth in the private sector, people with knowledge of the matter said. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, or SAMA as the central bank is known, is weighing proposals that would allow foreign banks to open more branches ...

  NEW YORK / AP Wells Fargo’s embattled CEO John Stumpf is stepping down as the nation’s second-largest bank is roiled by a scandal over its sales practices. The San Francisco bank said Stumpf is retiring effective immediately and also relinquishing his title as chairman. He won’t be receiving severance pay and the bank announced earlier that he will forfeit ...

  Milan / AFP UniCredit said on Thursday it had raised over half a billion euros as part of its latest asset sale, part of Italy’s largest bank’s effort to boost its funds without raising capital from shareholders. The 552 million euros ($609 million) from the sale of 20 percent of its online banking subsidiary Fineco will be used to ...

  Bloomberg Preoccupied by ultra-low interest rates in much of the industrialized world, the financial industry risks being blindsided by an even bigger challenge, according to Russian central bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina. “Banks could fall into a trap,” Nabiullina said at a conference in Kazan, capital of Russia’s republic of Tatarstan. “What do they mostly complain about now? Low interest ...