News

Bloomberg Indonesia will close an island inhabited by endangered komodo dragons following reports of rampant smuggling of the giant lizards, the Tempo reported. Komodo Island in Manggarai Barat in East Nusa Tenggara province will be shut to tourists from January, the newspaper reported, citing Marius Jelamu, a spokesman for the provincial administration. The decision was taken after consulting the environment ...

Bloomberg Japan’s remarkably tight labour market just got even tighter. The jobless dipped again to around the lowest in almost three decades while the number of jobs available for each applicant has remained at a 44-year high since last year. Even in easy going sub-tropical Okinawa, which has traditionally lagged mainland Japan in economic development, the ratio is near a ...

Bloomberg Governments in the Asia Pacific region are accelerating efforts to fight malicious use of online media, unveiling laws that make it easier to target websites which enable distribution of criminal or fraudulent content. Australia said it will legislate “tough” new laws to prevent social-media platforms from being “weaponised” by terrorists and extremists who may use them to live-stream violent ...

Bloomberg Tech unicorns got a bounce in their step with Lyft Inc’s initial public offering valuing it at $22.4 billion after its first day of trading. Ride-hailing’s No. 2 provider in the US first raised its target range and then expanded its offering to raise $2.34 billion. While the shares closed up only 8.7 percent compared with the 21 percent ...

Bloomberg BlackBerry Ltd jumped the most in six months after fourth-quarter results surpassed analysts’ estimates, boosted by strong gains in licensing revenue. The former phone maker reported sales of $99 million from its segment that distributes licenses for its existing patents to other businesses. That was a 71 percent increase over the previous year and helped boost total revenue 8 ...

Bloomberg Mondelez International Inc, the maker of Oreo cookies and Cadbury chocolates, is in advanced talks to acquire international brands being sold by Campbell Soup Co, people familiar with the matter said. Mondelez is negotiating final terms of a purchase of Arnott’s Biscuits, the Australian maker of Tim Tam cookies, and Danish butter-cookie producer Kelsen Group, according to the people. ...

Bloomberg If Donald Trump’s administration was looking for signs of easing tensions between two of his vaunted constituencies — blue-collar oil and rural farmers — a hearing in Michigan proves otherwise. The two sides exchanged heated comments at a public hearing over proposed changes by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on ethanol policy. Oil refiners and agricultural proponents, including Iowa ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM The value of exports through Abu Dhabi ports increased by 36.6% from AED 12.6 billion in Q4 2017 to AED17.2 billion in the same period of 2018, according to the figures released by Statistics Centre —Abu Dhabi. The business sector increased by AED4.0 billion (32.6%), the government sector by AED 518.4 million (726.1%), and the individual ...

Bloomberg Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil producer, will buy a majority stake in local chemical giant Sabic from the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund for $69.1 billion, transferring a big slug of cash from one arm of the state to another to help finance Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s economic agenda. The Middle East’s biggest ever deal was first mooted ...

SHARJAH / WAM HH Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Sup-reme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, launched the ‘Sharjah Sustainable City’ project on Wednesday. The AED2 billion project is the first urban mixed-use project in the emirate, which meets the highest standards of green economy and environmental sustainability. The project is the outcome of a strategic partnership between ...