LILLERS, FRANCE: White smoke billows from a chimney at a sugar beet factory in northern France, where a tanker truck is filling up on the region’s “white gold.” As the sugar beet harvesting season enters full swing, the Lillers plant of the world’s third-biggest sugar producer Tereos is a hive of activity, with trucks bearing consignments…
BEIJING: Saudi Arabia held on to its spot as China’s largest supplier of crude in August for the second straight month, official customs data showed on Wednesday, although this month’s attack on Saudi oil processing facilities may end the run. Saudi oil arrivals in August in China, the world’s biggest oil importer, reached 7.79 million tons,…
BEIJING: Saudi Arabia held on to its spot as China’s largest supplier of crude in August for the second straight month, official customs data showed on Wednesday, although this month’s attack on Saudi oil processing facilities may end the run. Saudi oil arrivals in August in China, the world’s biggest oil importer, reached 7.79 million tons,…
TUNIS: UK tour operator Thomas Cook’s bankruptcy may not spell the end of tourism in Tunisia, but highlights the need to diversify the sector beyond all-inclusive holidays. The demise of the package giant comes as Tunisia recovers from a three-year tourism lull after terror attacks in 2015 killed dozens of tourists. The attacks on a museum…
DUBAI: Fancy buying a new television? Get it for a whopping $60,000 – it comes with the newest 8K resolution technology, but the snag is you will still have to push the on button. The top-end TV is just one of the more than 35,000 items featured at this year’s GITEX Shopper in the Dubai…
BEIJING: Beijing’s huge new airport, Daxing International, is formally open, President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday, ahead of the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.The phoenix-shaped airport, located in the south of the capital, will help relieve pressure on the existing Capital International Airport in Beijing’s northeast, where capacity constraints often cause flight…
Want a job at McDonald’s? Just ask your smartphone.McDonald’s is now letting job seekers start an application by using voice commands with Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s Assistant.Users can say, “Alexa, help me get a job at McDonald’s.” Then Alexa will respond by asking which country they want to work in and play McDonald’s catchy “I’m…
LONDON: Emergency flights brought 14,700 people back to the United Kingdom on Monday after the collapse of travel firm Thomas Cook, and around 135,300 more are expected to be returned over the next 13 days, Britain's aviation regulator said.The collapse of Thomas Cook in the early hours of Monday left hundreds of thousands of people…
LONDON: London transport authorities have given ride-hailing firm Uber a two-month license with new safety conditions as it continues to scrutinize the company. Transport for London said Tuesday it issued the license to Uber firm as the U.S. tech company's 15-month license was set to expire. The authority said that over the next two months…
LONDON: London transport authorities have given ride-hailing firm Uber a two-month license with new safety conditions as it continues to scrutinize the company. Transport for London said Tuesday it issued the license to Uber firm as the U.S. tech company's 15-month license was set to expire. The authority said that over the next two months…
DAR ES SALAAM: Tanzania’s central bank said on Monday it had fined five commercial banks over $800,000 for breaching anti-money laundering rules, the latest in a series of moves aimed at tightening regulation in the financial services sector. The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) said in a statement the fines were imposed “for failure to conduct…
KHARTOUM: Sudan’s transitional government will launch in October a 9-month economic rescue plan to stabilize the economy, Finance Minister Ibrahim Elbadawi said on Monday.The measures will include rationalizing spending and tackling of inflation, Elbadawi said, adding that subsidies for bread or petrol would continue until around June 2020.
LONDON: Longtime British tour company Thomas Cook collapsed after failing to secure rescue funding, and travel bookings for its more than 600,000 global vacationers were canceled early Monday. The British government said the return of the firm’s 150,000 British customers now abroad would be the largest repatriation in its peacetime history. The process began Monday…
PARIS: French airline XL Airways has called on Air France to discuss a rescue deal to avert the collapse of the budget carrier that halted ticket sales and payments last week.XL Airways, which has said it needs $38.6 million (€35 million) in fresh financing, requested in a statement on Sunday a meeting with Air France…
CAIRO: Egypt’s stock exchange suspended trading for 30 minutes on Sunday after the EGX 100 index fell by 5 percent, bourse data showed.Analysts linked the sharp drop in share prices to small protests that broke out in Cairo and other cities on Friday.It was the first time the exchange had suspended trading in the EGX…
DUBAI: When Nobuo Tanaka talks, people listen. In the course of nearly five decades at the top echelons of global policymaking in economics, trade and energy, he has been advising governments and multinational organizations on some of the most pressing issues in the world, usually with a focus on the all-important global energy business. Now,…
SINGAPORE: Sales of Singapore apartments worth at least S$10 million ($7.3 million) have hit an 11-year high, fueled by increased demand from Chinese millionaires seeking safe-haven assets, say property consultants OrangeTee & Tie. Investors have long viewed Singapore as an island of stability that attracts the super-rich from its less developed Southeast Asian neighbors, as…
SINGAPORE: Sales of Singapore apartments worth at least S$10 million ($7.3 million) have hit an 11-year high, fueled by increased demand from Chinese millionaires seeking safe-haven assets, say property consultants OrangeTee & Tie. Investors have long viewed Singapore as an island of stability that attracts the super-rich from its less developed Southeast Asian neighbors, as…
SHANGHAI: China cut its new one-year benchmark lending rate for the second month in a row on Friday, a step by the central bank to try to wrestle down borrowing costs and support the economy as the Sino-US trade war drags on.But the move was far more cautious than easing by the US Federal Reserve…
BEIJING/SHANGHAI: Apple’s latest iPhone 11 range hit stores in China on Friday, with short queues of die-hard fans contrasting with the hundreds who camped out ahead of some previous launches.The sales performance of the US tech giant’s latest line-up is being closely watched in the world’s largest smartphone market, where Apple has been losing ground…
