News

Bloomberg Germany said there’s little progress in fulfilling a peace deal for Ukraine signed a year ago and called on the parties to the conflict to step up efforts after four- nation talks with Ukraine, Russia and France. While the intensity of fighting has declined, “we are still quite far off from implementing” the accord, said Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier ...

Bloomberg Argentina’s new administration wasted little time trying to end US court orders barring the country from paying holders of its restructured debt, as it seeks to set aside its status as a credit-market pariah after 15 years. Representatives of newly seated President Mauricio Macri, after reaching a settlement with some holdout creditors, is urging US District Judge Thomas Griesa ...

KUWAIT/ AFP Kuwait and Italy will finalise a multi-billion-euro deal next week for the Gulf state to purchase Eurofighter jets, Kuwait’s defence minister has said. Sheikh Khaled Jarrah Al-Sabah did not specify the number of planes involved in the deal but the Eurofighter consortium said in September that Kuwait had agreed to buy 28 fighter jets. “Italian Defence Minister Roberta ...

New York / AFP US aerospace giant Boeing’s shares dived amid speculation that regulators are investigating its accounting for its 787 and 747 aircraft. In midday trade, shares in the Dow member were down about 10 percent at $104.44. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has opened a probe on Boeing’s profitability forecasts for the long-haul 787 and 747 jetliners, ...

Mexico / Bloomberg Wal-Mart de Mexico SAB, a bright spot for its struggling US-based parent company, will benefit this year as a weak peso spurs an increase in remittances while inflation remains in check, Chief Financial Officer Pedro Farah said. Latin America’s biggest retailer also plans to invest more in e-commerce and sell non-core businesses such as its Suburbia apparel ...

Berlin / Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG, the sole airline so far to take delivery of Airbus Group SE’s new A320neo model, will limit the plane to domestic German routes until glitches with the engine cooling system are resolved in coming weeks. Lufthansa has flown its first A320neo between Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich since receiving the aircraft in January, and the ...

BANGKOK / Bloomberg Thai Airways International Pcl will continue to ground 10 Airbus A340s it hasn’t been able to sell because flying the four-engine planes isn’t worth it, even after fuel prices plunged more than 40 percent in the past year. “The fuel consumption is so uneconomical,” Thai Airways International President Charamporn Jotikasthira said in an interview in Bangkok. “All ...

Washington / Bloomberg It’s Valentine’s Day today, and Americans will buy $1.1 billion of confectionery to mark the occasion, according to data from the Washington-based National Confectioners Association. That’s up 2.6 percent from last year and the most since at least 2011. About three-quarters of that will be chocolate. The volume of US retail chocolate sales is expected to drop ...

NEW DELHI / WAM The United Arab Emirates and the Republic of India exchanged a number of cooperation agreements and memorandums of understanding in a number of areas. The exchange ceremonies were witnessed by His Highness Sheikh Mohmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and His Excellency ...

Dubai / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has directed the World Government Summit (WGS) to establish new international partnerships and launch knowledge initiatives with world governments to shape the next generation of leaders and help them prepare for future challenges and changes across all ...