AFP A string of overseas investments has shone a new spotlight on Chinese conglomerate Fosun, after the mysterious disappearance — and re-emergence — of its tycoon chairman rattled investors. In the space of three days last week, the Shanghai-based company bought a stake in an Indian drugmaker for $1.26 billion, acquired a Brazilian investment firm and announced plans to ...

  Berlin / AFP German industrial giant Siemens lifted its annual earnings forecast on Thursday after booming demand for renewables fattened order books in the second quarter, but warned of increasing geopolitical risks. For the financial year ending September, the group said it expected profits per share between 6.50 and 6.70 euros ($7.24-7.46), compared with the 6.0 to 6.40 it ...

  Bloomberg Serco Group Plc shares surged to a 14-month high after the U.K. government-services contractor raised its profit target for a second time this year following quicker-than-expected cost savings and the pound’s plunge. Serco rose as much as 16 percent to 138 pence, the highest intraday price since June 3, 2015, and was up 14 percent at 12:18 p.m. ...

  The Hague / AFP Inflation in The Netherlands dipped into negative territory in July for the first time in nearly three decades, slipping to -0.30 percent, according to official statistics published on Thursday. “The last time that inflation was below zero was in December 1987,” the Central Statistics Office said. The news came after three months of stagnation when ...

  Brussels / AFP The European Union on Thursday hit China and Russia with anti-dumping duties on cold rolled steel imports after complaints by EU producers they were being forced out of the market. The European Commission said the levies, announced provisionally in February, will run for five years as Europe tries to cope with a global steel glut largely ...

  Brighton / AFP The world’s tallest moving observation tower, the i360, opens to the public on Thursday, a futuristic landmark that has transformed the historic seafront in the English tourist resort of Brighton. A 162-metre (530-foot) high steel tower is ringed by a doughnut-shaped glass observation pod that gently glides up and down. The design is meant to be ...

  Sirte / AFP Libyan pro-government forces battled to retake territory in the IS group stronghold Sirte on Wednesday, but faced fierce resistance from extremist snipers and mines. Fighters allied to Libya’s UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), supported by US air strikes, are trying to retake the coastal city — hometown of slain dictator Moamer Kadhafi — from IS ...

  Kano / AFP Boko Haram’s elusive leader Abubakar Shekau broke his silence on Thursday to insist he was “still around” following reports IS had replaced him, but his message fuelled talk of a split within the extremist group. For months, speculation has been rife over the fate of Shekau, who has led the Nigeria-based rebel group since 2009 but ...

  Herat / AFP Taliban militants attacked a group of 12 American and European tourists escorted by an Afghan army convoy in western Herat province on Thursday, leaving at least seven people wounded as the insurgents step up nationwide attacks. The tourists — eight British, three Americans and one German national — were ambushed by Taliban gunmen in the restive ...

  Paris / AFP France’s top diplomat has told his Egyptian counterpart that the French families who lost loved ones in the May 19 EgyptAir crash are impatient for answers, the foreign ministry said Thursday. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, in a telephone conversation on Wednesday, “reminded” his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Choukri “of the difficult situation of the families waiting ...