Brussels / AFP Silicon Valley tech titan Apple will fight an EU demand for a record 13 billion euros in back taxes in Ireland, a move Washington warned could damage transatlantic economic ties. Brussels said Apple, the world’s most valuable company, avoided virtually all tax on its business in the bloc by illegal arrangements with Dublin which gave the ...

  Bloomberg Prada SpA shares rose as much as 15 percent after Chairman Carlo Mazzi forecast that the Italian luxury-goods maker will return to growth in sales and earnings next year, helped by cost-cutting and online expansion in Asia. This year “is a turning point and we are now firmly on the path to sustainable growth in revenues and earnings ...

  Bloomberg Boeing Co. skipped raising airplane prices for the first time in seven years as it contends with demand cooled by economic uncertainty, cheap oil and a glut of twin-aisle aircraft. The US planemaker typically adjusts its catalog prices for commercial aircraft once a year to reflect an internal formula that takes into account increases in the costs of ...

  Bloomberg AirAsia Bhd. expects to sell its aircraft-leasing unit as early as December as the largest customer for Airbus Group SE’s single-aisle jets aims to net as much as $1 billion from the transaction and pare debt. Proceeds from the sale may be used to reduce debt or pay a dividend, Group Chief Executive Officer Tony Fernandes said in ...

  Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co. and its pilots union agreed on the basics of a contract that will increase pilot pay and retirement benefits and enable the carrier to enter international marketing agreements and fly the latest model of the Boeing Co. 737. Final wording on the contract terms is expected to be negotiated by the end of this week, ...

  Bloomberg The first regular commercial flight in more than 50 years from the US to Cuba departed Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday — the latest step in the post-Cold War thaw between the two nations. JetBlue Flight 386 took off from the airport in southeastern Florida shortly after 10:00 am (1400 GMT) with 150 passengers on board. After less than ...

  AFP Cyprus and Egypt signed a deal on Wednesday paving the way for detailed negotiations on a submarine pipeline to export natural gas from the Mediterranean island to its energy-starved neighbour. Cyprus has been eager to secure alternative ways to exploit its offshore reserves after proven finds so far were insufficient to make a planned liquefied natural gas plant ...

  AFP British drugmaker AstraZeneca agreed to pay more than $5 million to settle allegations that it broke US anticorruption laws in China and Russia. The Securities and Exchange Commission said that in China, employees of an AstraZeneca subsidiary offered cash and gifts to health care officials to encourage them to buy AstraZeneca drugs or reduce pending financial sanctions. In ...

  AFP Eurozone inflation and jobless data on Wednesday fell short of analyst forecasts as the economy bumps along amid speculation the European Central Bank will have to adopt more stimulus measures. The official EU statistics agency Eurostat said eurozone consumer prices rose 0.2 percent in August, the same rate as in July. Eurozone unemployment meanwhile was unchanged at 10.1 ...

  AFP The protracted battle to have Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom face video piracy charges in the United States broke new ground on Wednesday with live-streaming of his appeal against extradition. Dotcom won approval to live-stream his bid to avoid leaving New Zealand after successfully arguing that global interest required more than standard brief television clips. The case, in the ...