News

  KHOBAR / Reuters The government-owned Public Investment Fund (PIF) replaced four of its representatives on the board of Ma’aden, the Gulf’s largest miner, in which it owns 49.99 percent. Saudi Arabia’s Mining Co (Ma’aden) said its board now includes the chairman of state oil giant Saudi Aramco, Khalid al-Falih and prominent Saudi businesswoman Lubna al-Olayan. Besides Falih and Olayan, ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Qatari telecom operator Ooredoo reported a 75 percent rise in first-quarter net profit driven by foreign exchange gains from Indonesia and Myanmar. The earnings of the former monopoly, which operates in about a dozen territories across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, have been volatile since mid-2013 when foreign exchange losses and plunging earnings from Iraq ...

  New Delhi / Bloomberg India’s top court extended a ban on registration of new large diesel-powered vehicles in New Delhi to curb pollution, dealing a blow to automakers such as Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz and Toyota Motor Corp. The prohibition, imposed in December, will continue until the next hearing on May 9, said Gopal Subramaniam, a lawyer appearing for Mercedes ...

  New Delhi / Bloomberg IndiGo, India’s largest airline, posted fourth-quarter profit exceeding analysts’ estimates as a slump in crude oil cut fuel costs, helping the carrier offer cheaper fares and garner a bigger share of the world’s fastest-growing air travel market. Net income in the three months through March was almost unchanged at 5.79 billion rupees ($87.3 million) compared ...

  Tokyo / AFP Nissan said it will recall more than 3.8 million vehicles, mostly in North America, because the passenger-side airbag may not deploy in a crash due to a defect in the seat sensor. The Japanese automaker said the global recall would cover 2013-2017 including some Nissan Altima, Leaf, Maxima, Murano, Pathfinder, Sentra and Rogue models. “This recall ...

  Tokyo / Bloomberg Japan’s Sharp Corp. will post a net income loss of 250 billion yen ($2.3 billion) for the year through March, according to the Mainichi newspaper. The company had previously said it expects a loss of 170 billion yen on an operating level. Sluggish sales at the firm’s display and solar battery units were given as reasons ...

  Phnom Penh / AFP Cambodia’s prime minister has ordered a million hectares of forest be included in protected zones as the country faces one of the world’s fastest deforestation rates. The move, which covers five new areas of forest, will bump Cambodia’s conservation zones up by a fifth, bringing more than a quarter of the country’s land under protection. ...

  New York / AFP Negotiators on the ambitious TTIP transatlantic trade pact said they had made significant progress in New York this week and hope for a deal in 2016, despite popular opposition on both sides. Both sides said they would not be deterred by increased attacks on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and did not plan to ...

  Paris / AFP Britain kept its coveted top-grade triple-A credit rating from Standard and Poor’s on Friday, with the agency saying it expected the country to ultimately vote to remain in the European Union. Standard and Poor’s said “our affirmation of the rating reflects our assumption that, by a small majority, the referendum will deliver a vote to remain ...

  Bloomberg The first month of the European Central Bank’s expanded stimulus program has done little to aid the region’s government bonds. Even as the ECB increased its asset-purchase program to €80 billion ($92 billion) in April, from €60 billion, sovereign securities headed for their biggest monthly decline since August, according to Bloomberg World Bond Indexes. Benchmark German 10-year bunds ...