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Bloomberg Britain posted a larger-than-predicted budget deficit in February, leaving Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne little room to meet his full-year fiscal forecast. Government spending exceeded revenue by £7.1 billion ($10.1 billion) compared with 7.5 billion pounds a year earlier, figures from the Office for National Statistics show. Economists in a Bloomberg survey had predicted a £5.9 billion-shortfall. In ...

Bloomberg The pound posted the biggest decline among major currencies amid speculation the Brussels explosions will boost the case of campaigners who want Britain to quit the European Union. The tragedy risks making sterling into even more of a political football as the debate over a potential “Brexit” rages. Anti-EU politicians have argued that migration leaves the U.K. vulnerable to ...

Bloomberg German manufacturing grew at the slowest pace in 16 months in March, evidence that the economy is feeling the pressure of cooling global demand. Markit Economics said its Purchasing Managers Index slipped to 50.4 from 50.5 in February, just above the 50 level that separates expansion from contraction. While a separate report showed services improved this month, a gauge ...

Bloomberg Economic growth in the euro area probably picked up at the end of the first quarter, according to Markit Economics, which also said that concerns remain about the health of the region. Markit’s composite Purchasing Managers Index of manufacturing and services rose to a three-month high of 53.7 in March from 53 in February. That keeps the measure well ...

Bloomberg On a typical weekday, hundreds of heavy trucks arrive at the Chempark Leverkusen, a sprawling complex of refineries flanking the Rhine River in western Germany. For the past two years, the trucks have been forced to make long detours to avoid a crumbling Autobahn bridge that dates to when the Beatles were singing Twist and Shout in Hamburg. Designed ...

Brussels / AFP The US and Cuban presidents expressed hope for the improving relationship between their nations even as they underscored deep differences over human rights and governance, in an extraordinary news conference punctuated by Raul Castro’s critique of the American social safety net and an awkward miscue on a closing handshake. “After more than five very difficult decades, the ...

Kunduz / AP The new commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan apologized on Tuesday to the people of Kunduz for the deadly attack on a hospital in the city last year that killed 42 people. US Army Gen. John Nicholson traveled to the northern city to meet local leaders and relatives of those who died in the Oct. ...

Hanoi / AP A prominent Vietnamese blogger who is a former police officer and the son of a late government minister will be put on trial this week for alleged anti-state postings, his lawyer said on Tuesday. Nguyen Huu Vinh and his assistant, Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy, are accused of abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the interests of the ...

Tokyo / AFP A nuclear transport vessel carrying a huge cache of plutonium—enough to produce 50 nuclear bombs—to be returned to the US left a Japanese port on Tuesday afternoon. The stockpile, provided by the United States, Britain and France decades ago for research purposes, is being shipped to the US as part of a bilateral storage deal. Television footage ...

Washington / AFP Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump exchanged jabs as they separately courted a massive crowd of pro-Israel lobbyists, putting their differing views on supporting the Jewish state front and center in their White House battle. Democrat Clinton positioned herself as an unwavering friend to Israel, while bashing her rival as prejudiced and insufficiently supportive of one of America’s ...