News

  Paris / AFP The orginal artwork for the last two pages of the Tintin comic book “King Ottokar’s Sceptre” sold for a total of €1.046 million ($1.2 million) at auction on Saturday in Paris. “This is only the second time a Tintin plate has exceeded a million euros,” Eric Leroy, comic book expert at French auction house Artcurial, said. ...

  Lisbon / AFP Portugal kept its much-needed access to EU financial help after an European Central Bank-approved credit agency maintained its rating of Portuguese debt at investment grade level. Toronto-based DBRS announced it had kept Portugal’s rating at “BBB” level, with a “stable” perspective. “The rating reflects Portugal’s eurozone membership, favourable public debt maturity structure, and reduced vulnerabilities, following ...

  Berlin / AFP German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said he didn’t understand how Volkswagen bosses could defend their bonuses after a huge emissions-rigging scandal plunged the carmaker into global turmoil, according to an interview with Die Welt published on Sunday. The criticism comes after Volkswagen revealed this week that its top executives would be paid a total of €63.2 ...

  Madrid / AFP A wind of change is blowing on Spain’s renewables: companies and investment funds have been on a buying spree, taking advantage of the know-how and growth prospects of a sector still limping out of a crisis. In 2015 “total transactions reached €5 billion ($5.7 billion)”, says Joao Saint-Aubyn, a Madrid-based energy expert at global consultancy Roland Berger. ...

  Omaha, Neb / AP   Berkshire Hathaway’s idiosyncrasies were on display this weekend, as tens of thousands of people filled an arena to listen to Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger talk business for several hours at the conglomerate’s annual meeting. No other company can match the crowds who attend Berkshire’s meeting, the 51-year-tenure of its top two executives or its ...

  Bloomberg A change to drier weather in Argentina is paring the biggest monthly gain for soybeans since 2014 after floods damaged the country’s crops. Dry weather will prevail in Argentina, the world’s third-largest exporter of soybeans, through early next week, allowing harvesting to accelerate, MDA Weather Services said in a report on Saturday. The harvest is 24 percent complete, ...

  Caracas, Venezuela / AFP With their country gripped by an economic crisis, Venezuelans will lose half an hour of sleep when their clocks are moved forward to save power on President Nicolas Maduro’s order. At 2:30 am local time, the oil-dependent South American nation will shift its time ahead by 30 minutes — to four hours behind Greenwich Mean Time. ...

  New York / BLOOMBERG American International Group Inc. raised $1.25 billion selling shares of Chinese insurer PICC Property & Casualty Co. near the low end of a marketed range. The largest commercial insurer in the U.S. and Canada sold 740 million shares of PICC P&C at HK$13.08 apiece, after earlier offering them at HK$13.06 to HK$13.35, according to terms ...

  DUBAI / WAM HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority ( DSOA ), the regulatory body for Dubai Silicon Oasis , the integrated free zone technology park, approved the DSOA 2021 Strategy, which is based on UAE Vision 2021 and the Dubai Plan 2021 that provide an enabling operational framework for government entities ...

  ABU DHABI / WAM Juma Mohammed Al Kait, Assistant Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Economy for Foreign Trade Affairs, is heading the UAE trade and investment delegation during his visit to Spain from May 3-4, to attend the UAE-Catalonia Forum, organised by the ministry in cooperation with the UAE’s Consulate General in Barcelona city. While in Spain, the delegation ...