Bloomberg More rich Asians are asking private banks to manage their wealth amid increasing volatility in financial markets, a new survey shows, in an encouraging sign to firms such as UBS Group AG and Credit Suisse Group AG that are expanding their businesses in the region. About a quarter of high-net-worth investors in Asia were clients of private banks ...

  Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. reduced its forecast for net interest margin, the difference between what it makes on loans and pays for funds, on expectations interest rates will remain low for a longer stretch than bank executives previously thought. The margin will be about 2.90 percent in the second half of 2016, down from a previous forecast of 2.95 percent, ...

  Bloomberg The highly-indebted oil company at the center of Brazil’s biggest corruption scandal still has cash to support top athletes in the run-up to the Olympic games being held in its home city. Rio de Janeiro-based Petrobras has expanded its budget for athletes, even as it cut overall sponsorship spending by 27 percent this year to 228 million reais ...

  Bloomberg Accused by one of its founders of nepotism and greed, Hyperloop Technologies Inc., a startup dedicated to fulfilling Elon Musk’s dream of high-speed transportation, is taking steps to rein in the power of its major stakeholders. At a series of all-hands meetings in recent weeks, according to two people familiar with the situation, the company told employees it’s ...

  Cucuta, Colombia / AFP Thousands of Venezuelans crossed into the Colombian city of Cucuta to buy food and medicine, taking advantage of another brief opening in the border that’s been closed nearly a year. Caracas authorized the temporary opening a week after some 35,000 Venezuelans poured across the border during a 12-hour opening of the pedestrian bridge that connects Tachira, ...

  Istanbul / AFP Turkish authorities on Sunday pressed on with a ruthless crackdown against suspects in the failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with 6,000 people including generals detained in action that has sparked international concern. World leaders including US President Barack Obama have strongly condemned the attempted putsch but also urged Turkey to respect the rule of law ...

  Yerevan / AFP An armed Armenian group with links to a jailed opposition leader seized a police building in Yerevan on Sunday, killing one policemen and taking several more hostage, including top officers. One of the gunman said they were demanding the resignation of President Serzh Sarkisian and the release of political prisoners but the country’s security services dismissed ...

  Dubai / AFP A court on Sunday ordered the dissolution of Bahrain’s Shiite main opposition group Al-Wefaq, a judicial source said, despite international criticism of the Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom’s intensified crackdown on dissent. The administrative court in Manama also ordered the funds of the group, accused by authorities of “harbouring terrorism” among other charges, to be seized by the ...

  Yangon / AFP Myanmar’s de facto premier Aung San Suu Kyi held landmark talks with senior rebel leaders on Sunday, as she strives to seal a ceasefire with a patchwork of ethnic minority militias that have battled the national army for decades. Suu Kyi has made peace a flagship policy of her newly installed civilian-led government which replaced decades ...

  New Delhi / AFP Twenty-one labourers died after drinking toxic homemade liquor in northern India, police said on Sunday, in the latest incident of alcohol poisoning in the country. Police in Uttar Pradesh state’s Etah district said the victims started to vomit and fall sick, complaining of severe stomach aches and blurred vision after consuming the illicit moonshine late ...