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Bloomberg Apple Inc. faces a French criminal probe into allegations from consumer groups that it’s deliberately shortening the life of iPhones. The investigation, confirmed by Paris prosecutors, comes just weeks after the US technology giant apologised to customers for software changes it says unintentionally reduced the performance of older smartphones to prevent unexpected shutdowns. The authorities opened a preliminary investigation ...

Bloomberg Huawei Technologies Co. has failed to strike a deal for AT&T Inc. to sell its flagship phones to American consumers, a setback for China’s top mobile-phone maker, which was expected to unveil a partnership with a US carrier as early as this week, according to people familiar with the matter. Even without an immediate partner that would help it ...

Bloomberg The engineer who was fired by Google after he criticised its diversity policies claims in a lawsuit that he and others at the internet giant were harassed over their conservative political views. James Damore filed a class-action complaint after setting off a firestorm in August with a 10-page memo blasting Google’s “left bias” for creating a “politically correct monoculture.” ...

LONDON / Reuters Gasoline exports from Europe to the Middle East have surged in recent months to record highs as traders seek to fill a gap due to particularly heavy refinery maintenance in the region in the coming months, according to shipping data and trading sources. So far this month, at least a dozen tankers have been confirmed or placed ...

Bloomberg India, the largest importer of Chinese solar equipment, proposed a 70 percent safeguard duty on cells and modules shipped from China and Malaysia, citing “threat of serious injury” to the domestic industry. Acting on an application by five local cell and module makers, the Directorate General of Safeguards, Customs and Central Excise made the proposal in a document dated ...

Bloomberg Saudi Arabian Oil Co. is set to appoint banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. to help manage its initial public offering, people familiar with the matter said, as the state-owned crude producer pushes ahead with what could be the world’s largest share sale. JPMorgan Chase & Co., HSBC Holdings Plc and Morgan Sta- nley, which have ...

Bloomberg Oil steadied near $62 a barrel on estimates that US crude stockpiles declined for an eighth week as the rebalancing of global markets continues. Futures added as much as 1.3 percent in New York to the highest intraday level in almost three years. US inventories probably fell by 3.75 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey before ...

Bloomberg OPEC’s strategy to end a worldwide crude glut is causing havoc for a vital link in the oil industry’s supply chain: the fleet of supertankers that shuttle fuel between continents. The ships’ average earnings plunged last year by more than half to levels not seen since 2009 and far below what shipping analysts had been predicting. Now, the producer ...

TUNIS / Reuters Libya’s National Oil Corp (NOC) said it had won two international arbitration cases over the 220,000 bpd-capacity Ras Lanuf refinery, and called for the refinery to restart as soon as possible. The NOC said in a statement that the arbitration cases, which date to 2013, had been settled in its favour at the International Chamber of Commerce ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) signed a fintech cooperation agreement, marking a significant first in the MENA region. With the new partnership, Bahrain EDB and ADGM will explore initiatives to promote economic growth in financial services through the adoption of new technology, and highlight MENA’s strengths in the fintech ...