Venezuela’s socialist government welcomed scores of creditors on Monday for talks intended to renegotiate a crippling foreign debt and avert a default that could compound the once-prosperous OPEC nation’s economic crisis. About 100 investors — including some bondholders from New York, and lawyers and representatives for others — gathered at the ornate “White Palace” opposite President Nicolas Maduro’s office in downtown Caracas for the afternoon meeting. His chief negotiators Vice President Tareck El Aissami and Economy Minister Simon Zerpa — both on U.S. sanctions lists for drug and corruption charges …

The federal government began its new budget year with an October deficit of $63.2 billion, up sharply from a year ago. The Treasury Department reported Monday that the October deficit was 37.9 percent higher than the $45.8 billion deficit recorded in October 2016. Both government receipts and spending were up for the month, with receipts climbing 14.3 percent to $235.3 billion, a record for the month of October. The larger spending figure was up a sizable 11.6 percent to $298.6 billion. The deficit for the 2017 budget year, which ended …

Two became three as a scheduled Monday morning meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was expanded to include Japan’s Shinzo Abe. The change underscored the growing three-way relationship concerning regional security, especially regarding how to respond to North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, as well as countering China’s increasingly assertive maritime territorial claims. “The key for us is to ensure very close trilateral cooperation so as to bring peace and stability on the ground,” said the Japanese leader, who has been displaying …

The United Nations says Asia Pacific countries need to address issues surrounding the rights of migrant workers as international talks move toward a Global Compact on migrant labor. The Global Compact’s rise, with a final agreement set for 2018, was a result of the migrant crisis faced by the European Union with the influx of refugees and migrants from North Africa since 2015. The U.N.’s Special Representative on migrant labor, Louise Arbour, says states can no longer ignore the issues of labor migration in a globalized economy. “It has become …

For more than a century she was known as the woman behind the throne, the empress who through skill and circumstance rose from lowly imperial consort to iron-fisted ruler of China at a time and in a place when women were believed to have no power at all. But it turns out Empress Dowager Cixi was much more than that. The 19th century ruler, who consolidated authority through political maneuvering that at times included incarceration and assassination, was also a serious arts patron and even an artist herself, with discerning …

Liz Smith, the syndicated gossip columnist whose mixture of banter, barbs and bon mots about the glitterati helped her climb the A-list as high as many of the celebrities she covered, died Sunday at the age of 94.   Joni Evans, Smith’s literary agent, told The Associated Press she died of natural causes.    For more than a quarter-century, Smith’s column, titled simply “Liz Smith,” was one of the most widely read in the world. The column’s success was due in part to Smith’s own celebrity status, giving her an …