Bloomberg South Africa’s rand plunged by almost 8% against the dollar, touching its weakest level on a closing basis since January 1980, as investors fled riskier assets, with tumbling oil prices adding to nervousness spurred by the spreading coronavirus. The currency soon pared losses as investor panic eased to trade 1.9% weaker at 15.9726 per dollar in Johannesburg. It briefly ...

Bloomberg Qantas Airways Ltd and Air France-KLM became the latest airlines to announce massive cuts in flights as the coronavirus impedes travel. Qantas cut almost a quarter of its international flights for six months, grounded most of its giant A380 jets and slashed management pay as the outbreak hammers demand for travel. Air France said it plans to cancel 3,600 ...

Bloomberg Federal regulators hit Boeing Co with proposed fines totalling $19.7 million for allegedly installing unapproved cockpit equipment in hundreds of 737 Max and Next-Generation aircraft. The company put the devices into a total of 791 planes even though the aircraft weren’t certified for the devices, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a press release. The fine would be ...

Bloomberg Target Corp has joined Kroger Co in limiting purchases of items like hand sanitiser and disinfecting wipes in response to widespread stockpiling due to the coronavirus. Target began restricting customers to six items per person, spokeswoman Danielle Schumann said. Signs posted in stores say the move is “due to high demand.” Kroger made a similar move earlier this month, ...

Bloomberg A few years ago, Amazon.com Inc’s quick delivery team debated doing something radical for the e-commerce giant: asking shoppers to consider the environment. The team building Amazon’s Prime Now same-day delivery service knew that the quickest delivery options tended to be the worst for the planet. A guaranteed one-hour delivery window sometimes meant sending couriers in mostly empty vehicles ...

Bloomberg Thailand’s aviation regulator said airlines should ask passengers coming from high-risk territories for health certificates to establish they are free of the new coronavirus. Travellers who can’t provide documentation should be prevented from boarding flights to the Asian nation, according to a Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand notice posted. Carriers are liable for treatment costs if they fly in ...

DUBAI / WAM The Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), to enhance their collaboration and align the DIEDC’s stakeholders with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The agreement provides a framework to leverage the natural synergy between the two organisations with a focus on generating knowledge and research ...

Bloomberg Oil crashed more than 30% after the breakup of the Opec+ alliance triggered an all-out price war, with both Russia and Saudi Arabia poised to flood the market with cheap oil. The former allies pledged swift retribution for the collapse of the cartel’s meeting last week, with the Gulf kingdom slashing its official crude prices and threatening record production, ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Etihad Airways announced that it suspended temporarily all flights between Abu Dhabi and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in response to a directive from the General Authority for Civil Aviation, Saudi Arabia, to help prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus. The airline operates up to 12 flights per day between Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, ...

Dubai / WAM Five Emirati women from the Enoc Group, completed a four-week multicultural leadership academic programme at the Scotland Summer School in Dundee, accredited by the Scottish Qualifications Authority. The employees, Fatima Saleh Alichla, Hind Al Shamsi, Marwa Abdulla, Amna Banihashem and Naaima Al Falasi, all attended the programme to learn about diverse subjects including civilisational dialogue, Scottish history ...