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Frankfurt Clouds loomed over the German economy on Tuesday as business confidence in Europe’s economic powerhouse fell to its lowest level in over a year. According to the closely-watched business climate index calculated every month by the Ifo economic institute, business sentiment slumped to its lowest level since December 2014 in February. The index fell to 105.7 points in the ...

Barcelona The European Union said on Tuesday it will launch an action plan to develop 5G mobile networks which will massively speed up Internet connections, in an effort to avoid falling behind other regions. “The Commission will work together with the industry to prepare a coordinated 5G action plan for the Europe,” EU Digital Commissioner Gunther Oettinger said at the ...

Barcelona / AFP Connecting your smartphone to the web with just a lamp — that is the promise of Li-Fi, featuring Internet access 100 times faster than Wi-Fi with revolutionary wireless technology. French start-up Oledcomm demonstrated the technology at the Mobile World Congress, the world’s biggest mobile fair, in Barcelona. As soon as a smartphone was placed under an office ...

Riyadh / AFP A subsidiary of state-owned Irish airport operator daa has won the bid to operate Saudi Arabia’s first privately run terminal, official media in the kingdom and the company said. Colm Moran, CEO of daa International, signed the deal to manage and operate Riyadh’s Terminal 5 with Sulaiman al-Hamdan, president of regulator the General Authority of Civil Aviation ...

Washington / AP A UN panel approved a temporary ban on cargo shipments of rechargeable lithium batteries on passenger planes because they can create intense fires capable of destroying an aircraft. The decision by the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organisation’s top-level governing council isn’t binding, but most countries follow the agency’s standards. The ban is effective on April 1. “This ...

Sydney / AFP Australian carrier Qantas on Tuesday said first-half net profit soared 234 percent on the back of belt-tightening and lower oil prices, as it announced a Aus$500 million stock buyback to share the spoils with investors. The Aus$688 million (US$497 million) result comes on the heels of a ruthless cost-cutting drive that has seen thousands of jobs axed ...

New York / AFP US corporate major Honeywell has held talks to acquire United Technologies in a deal that would merge the two US industrial heavyweights with major aerospace operations, CNBC reported. Honeywell initiated the talks within the last two weeks, offering United Technologies a premium in stock and cash, the report said, adding that a deal could fall through in ...

NEW YORK / Bloomberg Sysco said that it will pay about $800 million to buy rival European food distributer Brakes Group, a deal which will help the company expand in the region. The companies valued the deal at $3.1 billion, when $2.3 billion of debt is included. Houston-based Sysco is purchasing Brakes Group from its private equity owner, Bain Capital. ...

OSLO / Relaxnews The Norway-based budget airline will start flying a nonstop Paris-New York route with introductory fares starting at $US175/€179 from July 29. Norwegian is also opening Paris-US routes connecting the French capital with Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale. Low-cost airlines have now officially brought their price-crunching battle to long-haul routes. Already known for budget fares between several European ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM Obaid Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, opened on Monday the first Arab Fiscal Forum – Fiscal Policy and Growth, in Abu Dhabi, held in co-operation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The two-day event is being attended by Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of IMF, Arab Finance Ministers, senior officials, experts from regional ...