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  London / AFP Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are pledging to spend more than $3 billion over the next decade to work on curing diseases. “Can we work together to cure, prevent or manage all disease within our children’s lifetime?” Chan said Wednesday onstage at an event in San Francisco for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. “Mark and ...

  Bloomberg Volkswagen AG offered no hint of concessions after a meeting with European Union regulators over demands the company provide compensation to the bloc’s consumers hit by the diesel emissions scandal. VW will carry out an “EU-wide action plan” to inform customers and repair the vehicles, EU Justice and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Vera Jourova said after meeting with Francisco ...

  Bloomberg The largest US gasoline pipeline returned to service by the end of the day Wednesday, easing almost two weeks of curtailed shipments that drove up pump prices and caused hundreds of stations to run out of fuel in the East and Southeast. Once Colonial Pipeline Co. restarts its main line, many shipments will be rerouted to southern locations ...

  Bloomberg For the second time this year, Egypt changed and then quickly reversed its import standards for wheat, leaving traders skeptical about doing business with the world’s largest buyer. Egypt canceled its zero-tolerance policy on a common type of fungus known as ergot on Wednesday, less than a month after reinstating the ban and rejecting cargoes from Romania to ...

  CAIRO / Reuters Egypt’s three established mobile phone operators have declined to buy fourth-generation (4G) service licences, two Egyptian telecoms officials said on Thursday. The companies, Vodafone, Orange and Etisalat, did not respond to repeated requests for comment. The Egyptian officials declined to be named as no official announcement had yet been made. The Egyptian government is selling four ...

  Reuters The Saudi finance ministry has resumed payments to Saudi Binladin Group (SBG), the kingdom’s biggest construction firm, for its work on government projects, Saudi Okaz newspaper reported on Thursday, citing an adviser to the chairman. SBG was hard hit last year as low oil prices forced the government — its chief customer — to cancel or suspend projects ...

  FUJAIRAH / WAM H.H. Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Fujairah, opened on Wednesday afternoon the UAE’s first berth for very large crude carriers (VLCC) on the Indian Ocean seaport of Fujairah, at cost of AED650 million. The Ruler of Fujairah stressed the keenness of the UAE, led by President His Highness Sheikh ...

  NEW YORK /WAM The UAE on Wednesday formally joined the Paris Agreement, following the Cabinet’s approval on September 4. HE Dr. Thani Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment, deposited the UAE’s instrument of ratification during the High-level Event for the Entry into Force of the Paris Agreement, which was convened on Wednesday by the United Nations ...

  DUBAI / WAM Dubai Women Establishment, DWE, in collaboration with Hawkamah, the Institute for Corporate Governance, recently organised a training programme on the theme of, “The Principles of Corporate Governance in Government Entities”. The session targeted second and third level female leaders within the government and private sectors, with the aim of promoting the role of Emirati women and ...

  Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business HE Abdullah Bin Ahmed Al Saleh, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy for Foreign Trade and Industry, has emphasized the UAE’s role as a major trade gateway for Chinese businesses and investments coming into the region and expanding towards various European and African markets. He pointed out the solid economic relations with China, which ...