Bloomberg Barney Harford, the former chief executive officer of online travel site Orbitz, has been named chief operating officer at Uber Technologies Inc., making him the second-highest ranking executive at the ride-hailing company. Harford, who sits on the board of airline company United Continental Holdings Inc., will oversee global ride-hailing operations, marketing, customer support, and the company’s food-delivery business. It’s ...

Bloomberg Facebook Inc. signed a multiyear licensing deal that lets the social network carry songs and artists from the world’s biggest record label, Universal Music Group, across its platforms. The deal solves a long-running dispute, with Facebook agreeing to compensate the company and artists including Taylor Swift when users post videos that include copyrighted material. The accord includes Facebook, Instagram ...

Bloomberg The US dollar and Russia’s ruble advanced in thin trading on a day when most markets worldwide are closed for a holiday. Saudi Arabian shares declined for a third straight day, with volume at 30 percent below the gauge’s 30-day average. Turkish stocks rose to the highest level in about seven weeks on a closing basis, while equities in ...

Reuters Gulf stock markets were mostly quiet in moderate trading volumes on Monday as Abu Dhabi-listed Dana Gas jumped ahead of a court hearing on its effort to avoid redeeming $700 million of Islamic bonds. Abu Dhabi’s index edged up 0.3 percent as Dana jumped 13.2 percent; it was the market’s most heavily traded stock by far. A court in ...

Bloomberg The Kremlin is “concerned” about the possibility the US might further expand sanctions on Russia, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “We don’t want to be in a situation where our bilateral relations, which are already in a rather pitiful state, could face even bigger and possibly unbearable risks and dangers,” Peskov told conference call on Monday. “We have concerns ...

Reuters A Bahraini military court sentenced six Shi’ite Muslim men to death and revoked their citizenship after they were convicted on charges of forming a terrorist cell and plotting to assassinate a military official, Bahrain news agency BNA reported on Monday. The men, including one soldier, were accused of several militant attacks and of attempting to assassinate a commander of ...

Reuters Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will visit Addis Ababa next week for talks with his Ethiopian counterpart, a foreign ministry spokesman said, in a bid to end a standoff over a multi-billion dollar dam project on the Nile river. The dispute, which also involves Sudan, centres on control of a share of the waters of the Nile that stretches ...

Bloomberg The United Nation’s latest sanctions on North Korea are more likely to hurt ordinary people in the isolated nation than slow Kim Jong-Un’s push to develop missiles capable of hitting the US with nuclear weapons. The UN Security Council unanimously approved new steps targeting North Korea’s economy following last month’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. The new restrictions ...

Bloomberg Cyril Ramaphosa, the newly-elected leader of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress, has a tenuous hold on power in the party after his allies fell short of securing outright control over its top leadership body. A lack of support from a clear majority of the 86 voting members of the ANC’s National Executive Committee will limit his scope to ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump’s Christmas wishes include a peaceful America, he said while taking phone calls from children tracking the global travels of Santa’s sleigh — although the president’s social-media activities suggested otherwise. “I think we want peace. What do you think? Peace for the country,” Trump told a young boy. “We’ve got prosperity. Now we want peace,” the president ...