Other national and international stories worth noting in what is a reasonably busy news day for a Monday:

• Oil field services outfit Baker Hughes is near a USD 30 bn pact to sell itself to GE in a transaction that would make the new GE unit publicly traded, but controlled by GE, the Wall Street Journal (paywall) reports.
• At least two blocs still believe in free trade: Canada and the European Union concluded a free-trade agreement yesterday. The agreement still requires approval by some 40 parliaments…
• Hillary Clinton’s proxies accused the director of the US FBI of a committing a “partisan act” by disclosing that it was again looking into her use of email with just days to go before the election.
• The government’s ownership of Eastern Tobacco could see Egypt excluded from the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. China, Cuba, Bulgaria, Thailand and India could face similar issues, the writer of an op-ed for the WSJ (paywall) notes.
• Goldman Sachs is allowing certain of its rivals to sell their financial products through one of its web applications, the Journal reports.
• Random note: One of Pope Francis’ top assistants is an Egyptian priest named Yoannis Lahzi Gaid, Reuters notes as an aside in an otherwise still interesting piece headlined “Pope Francis the manager — surprising, secretive, shrewd.”