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Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s bid to form a new government failed, raising the prospect of fresh elections in Europe’s largest economy and casting doubt on the future of its longest-serving leader. A month of coalition talks collapsed in dramatic fashion just before midnight on Sunday as disputes among a grab-bag of disparate parties over migration and other polices led ...

Bloomberg Kenya’s top court upheld Uhuru Kenyatta’s presidential win, ending three months of electoral uncertainty that have slowed growth in East Africa’s biggest economy. Stocks gained the most in two months. Kenyatta won the rerun fairly and electoral authorities’ failure to hold polling in the country’s western region didn’t invalidate the outcome, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday, rejecting all ...

BAGHDAD / Reuters Iraq’s Supreme Federal Court ruled on Monday that a referendum held on Kurdish independence was unconstitutional and that the results of the vote were void, a court spokesman said. Kurds voted overwhelmingly to break away from Iraq in a referendum held on September 25, defying the central government in Baghdad as well as neighbouring Turkey and Iran ...

Bloomberg Zimbabwean lawmakers are set to begin impeachment proceedings against President Robert Mugabe on Monday, after he defied a ruling party directive to end his 37-year rule. The 93-year-old Mugabe was widely expected to announce that he was stepping down in a televised address on Sunday night to enable Emmerson Mnangagwa, who he had fired as vice president earlier this ...

Bloomberg Chile’s presidential election is heading for a hotly contested second round after billionaire Sebastian Pinera took a smaller-than-expected lead in Sunday’s vote. The opposition leader had 36.7 percent of the vote with 89 percent of ballots counted, the electoral service said, short of the 50 percent plus one vote he needed to avoid a run-off. His rival in the ...

Most Americans likely think that our trade policies have been largely the same since the Republic’s earliest days. The assumptions are that we’re free traders now and always have been; also, that we’ve long been a manufacturing power, boosting exports. If we sometimes lose in global competition, the main cause is that other countries don’t play fair. The truth is ...

Amazon.com Inc. had better watch out. The $200 billion e-commerce market Morgan Stanley is forecasting for India by 2027 just got a new contender — with a very different plan. Energy tycoon Mukesh Ambani has already disrupted the country’s telecom industry. His next big foray may be online retail. But India’s richest man may not create a marketplace of his ...

The basic cause of America’s student-loan crisis is no mystery: College tuition and fees continue to soar while the earnings of recent graduates remain flat. It shouldn’t be surprising that there’s also a straightforward way to lower the cost of a college degree: Reduce the amount of time it takes to earn one. The US’s four-year bachelor’s degree is based ...

Cryptoassets are showing the signs of a bubble. Market capitalization is $222 billion, 16 times as much as a year ago, with no significant change in tangible economic value. The virtual currencies elicit investment excitement and breathless news coverage; sober analysis treating both technical issues and economic fundamentals is rarer. There is incessant cheerleading by people who own cryptoassets, manufacture ...

Moody’s recent decision to raise its rating of India’s sovereign bonds a notch, from Baa3 to Baa2, could elicit one of two reactions. On the one hand, a fair observer could feel that the decision was way overdue. And, on the other hand, an equally fair observer could raise an eyebrow at the timing. Actually, it’s possible to feel both ...