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Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government will invest an additional 12.4 billion euros ($14.1 billion) between 2021 and 2024 and take its first steps to help companies and workers affected by the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. After more than seven hours of talks, Merkel’s coalition loosened rules for short-term work compensation. The changes will make it easier for companies ...

Bloomberg Facebook Inc. is being sued in Australia by the nation’s privacy regulator, which claims the social media giant exposed the personal data of more than 300,000 users to the risk of being used for political profiling. In proceedings lodged in the Federal Court, the Australian Information Commissioner alleges Facebook repeatedly breached privacy laws by disclosing user information to the ...

Bloomberg Many Lyft Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. drivers have seen a bump in business from the spreading coronavirus, but they’re also weighing the risks of staying safe versus continuing to earn a paycheck. A study shows that more than half of ride-hailing drivers said they were now “very concerned” about reduced earnings as a result of the virus and ...

Bloomberg Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said he was “in good shape” after a failed assassination attempt his government branded an attack on the revolution that ousted the North African nation’s long-time dictator last year. Hamdok and his entourage were traveling to work in the capital, Khartoum, when they were targeted in a “terrorist bombing and shooting,” Information Minister Faisal ...

DUBAI / WAM The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), announced a record growth in 2019, registering an addition of 493 new businesses for the year. The total number of firms in the centre reached 2,437, up 14 percent from 2018, with a total of 32 percent growth since 2017. The DIFC now counts 17 of the world’s top 20 banks, ...

DUBAI / WAM The Business Registration and Licencing (BRL), sector of the Department of Economic Development (DED, Dubai), issued 4,459 new licences in February 2020 that created 11,877 jobs. Among the new licences issued, 72.4 percent were professional, 26.1 percent commercial, 1.1 percent related to tourism and 0.4 percent for industry. Deira accounted for the largest share (2,573), according to ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, is marking International Women’s Day by pledging to increase its female workforce by 25 percent over the next five years — the first airline in the country to make this commitment. This follows the International Air Travel Association’s (IATA) voluntary ‘25by2025’ campaign which aims to improve gender balance ...

DUBAI / WAM The International Halal Accreditation Forum (IHAF) has discussed the halal trade facilitation, growth and cooperation strategy, innovations and market trends at the 7th Board of Directors (BOD) meeting in Dubai. During the meeting, the board re-elected Emirates National Accreditation System (Enas) represented by Mohammed Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz Al Shehhi for Chairmanship post and elected Saud Al ...

Bloomberg An Indian state-run cotton buyer is boosting purchases from farmers to prevent them from making distressed sales as the spreading coronavirus curbs demand in key export markets and causes prices to slump. Cotton Corp of India Ltd has bought about 7.5 million bales (170 kilograms each) from farmers so far in 2019-20, and will buy more if growers offer ...

Bloomberg Huawei Technologies Co says coronavirus is making it harder to defend itself against a US racketeering and trade-secrets theft prosecution. Thomas Green, a lawyer for the Shenzhen, China-based telecommunications giant, said at conference in the case that travel restrictions have made it impossible for defence lawyers to gather evidence. The US State Department last month issued a do-not-travel warning ...