Headlines

Eurostar Diamond Traders has entered restructuring proceedings in Belgium, having amassed substantial debts, according to the company’s court-appointed administrator, Rapaport News reported. The Antwerp-based diamond manufacturer owes more than $500 million to creditors across its global operations, Alain Van den Cloot, one of the administrators, estimated in an email to Rapaport News. Two Antwerp courts designated Van den Cloot and a second attorney, Nathalie Vermeersch, as provisional administrators for Eurostar’s Belgian business last month.

Tougher rules for new borrowers, rising mortgage rates and new taxes for home buyers have been put in place by Canadian regulators in recent years to tame some of the most overheated housing markets in the developed world. But they have also shut prospective homeowners out of the market, the Wall Street Journal reported. That has slowed sales in cities like Toronto and Vancouver in recent months, prompting some to call for Canada to loosen the restrictions lest they brake the economy too much.

For the past 20 years, the border has existed on paper alone: Britain and the Republic of Ireland are both members of the European Union and its common marketplace. So people, goods and livestock can come and go as they please, traversing the mostly invisible line without tariffs or bureaucratic hindrance. But Britain’s looming exit from the European bloc, known widely as Brexit, threatens to make the old border real again — a factor that has long collided with any prospect of a smooth divorce, according to a New York Times analysis.

On the sidewalks of Shanghai and Beijing, once bright-yellow Ofo bicycles lie in varying states of disrepair - chains unhooked, wheels buckled and paint starting to fade - reflecting the quick rise and sharp fall of the Chinese bike-sharing startup, Reuters reported. Millions of Ofo users are clamoring for their deposits to be returned and the firm’s founder has admitted considering bankruptcy. Ofo’s plight is a warning for China’s tech investors, who have plowed tens of billions of dollars into loss-making businesses such as bike sharing, ride hailing and food delivery.

As its economy buckles, Iran is zealously cracking down on financial fraud, the Wall Street Journal reported. Central to its efforts is a fast-track fraud court approved by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in August that has sentenced dozens of people, including some 50 men this month, to up to 20 years for paying bribes, embezzlement and damaging the economy. In November, authorities executed two men accused of smuggling foreign currency and manipulating the gold-coin market, the Iranian judiciary’s news service reported.