Bloomberg Discovery Ltd, South Africa’s third-largest insurer by market value, said it has set up a partnership with Japan’s Sumitomo Life Insurance Co and SoftBank Group Corp to develop and introduce products for the world’s third-largest economy. Discovery’s Vitality program, which rewards members for exercising and eating healthy, will be introduced through Sumitomo and use SoftBank’s technological and digital ...

  Bloomberg India’s market regulator is forecasting initial public offerings to reach a record in the year ending March, as improved corporate governance standards and an equities rally attracts investors. Twenty one first-time sales raised 49.4 billion rupees (US$735 million) in the quarter ended June, more than in any comparable period since 2010, data compiled. Eighteen offerings seeking 61 billion ...

  Bloomberg U.S. stocks rose, sending the S&P 500 Index to a record, and the dollar strengthened as speculation mounted that central banks from Japan to Europe won’t be in a rush to add to unprecedented stimulus. Emerging-market assets and commodities retreated. The S&P 500 capped a fourth weekly gain as a preponderance of earnings reports topped estimates. Verizon Communications ...

  Bloomberg Christine Lagarde is likely to avoid jail time and keep her job as head of the IMF after she was ordered to stand trial in France on charges that carry a potential prison term. Lagarde, 60, on Friday lost a bid to challenge a December decision to be tried for alleged negligence during her time as French finance ...

  Bloomberg The pound’s recent resilience may prove short-lived as data showed the first indications that the U.K. economy may be faltering one month after Britain voted to leave the European Union. Inflation and labor figures covering the pre-Brexit period, released earlier this week, beat analyst predictions and helped the currency climb from a 31-year low versus the dollar set ...

  Bloomberg Husky Energy Inc. is running into difficulty containing and cleaning up a 1,570-barrel oil pipeline spill that entered the North Saskatchewan River in Canada this week, after rising water levels compromised its initial plan to capture the release. The company responded when a sheen on the water indicated a spill, and discovered it was from the failure of ...

  Ottawa / AFP Largely driven by housing, Canadian consumer prices rose 1.5 percent in June over a year ago, the same rate recorded in May, the Canadian government reported on Saturday. The pace fell short of analyst forecasts, which had predicted a rise in the consumer price index of 1.7 percent. Housing prices were up 1.6 percent after rising ...

  Istanbul / AFP Turkey pushed on Saturday with a sweeping crackdown against suspects accused of taking part in the failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, extending police powers to hold people in detention and shuttering over 1,000 private schools. A week after renegade soldiers tried to oust him with guns, tanks and F16s, Erdogan’s government has rounded up ...

  Chennai / AFP India on Saturday stepped up a major search operation for an air force plane that disappeared over the Bay of Bengal the day before with 29 people on board, as the defence minister headed to the region. The AN-32 military transport plane was on a routine flight from the southern city of Chennai to Port Blair, capital ...

  Beijing / AFP The size of China’s workforce may decline by as much as 23 percent by 2050, a government official said, as the population of the world’s second-largest economy rapidly ages. China’s working age population, defined as those between the ages of 16 and 59, peaked in 2011 and would soon “experience a process of sharp decline”, particularly after ...