London / Agencies Tesco Plc reported a second straight quarter of UK sales growth, the first time it’s done so in five years as the grocer’s turnaround gathers momentum. Excluding fuel, UK same-store sales rose 0.3 percent in the 13 weeks to May 28, Britain’s largest retailer said on Thursday. That compares with the median of 13 analysts’ estimates ...

  Hanoi / Tribune News Service The opening of direct flights between India and Laos aims to enhance people to people contacts between the two Asian neighbours. Lao News Agency recently quoted India’s ambassador to Laos, Ravi Shankar Aisola as saying the direct flights between India and Laos were in the final stages of approval and very soon there would ...

  Berlin / Bloomberg Frankfurt airport is investing 100 million euros ($113 million) in a series of upgrades that includes yoga rooms, playgrounds and a forest-like recreation area to make passengers more comfortable and hence more willing to spend money at the shops. Airports around the world have increasingly transformed into family-friendly malls to lift earnings amid restrictions and competition ...

  New York / AFP The Solar Impulse 2 landed in Spain on Thursday morning after completing a 70-hour flight from New York in the first solo transatlantic crossing in a solar-powered airplane. Applause broke out as the experimental plane set down at Seville airport in southern Spain just before 7:40 am (0540 GMT) where a team was on the ...

  Beijing / Bloomberg Japan’s $1.3 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) is suing Toshiba Corp. for losses on its investments after an accounting scandal sent the conglomerate’s shares plunging. GPIF is seeking damages of about 900 million yen ($8.6 million), said Shinichirou Mori, a spokesman for the fund. The losses relate to shares bought by GPIF’s external fund managers in ...

  New Delhi / Tribune News Service The cabinet cleared a Rs.6,000 crore package for the textile sector, aimed at generating 10 million jobs over the next three years and improving the sector’s competitiveness globally. The sops, which include incentives related to tax, production and labour to garment makers, are meant to help India overtake Bangladesh and Vietnam in apparel ...

  BEIJING / AP US, European and Chinese regulators say they will jointly enforce product safety in online commerce, and an American official said they are making progress on crafting standards for hoverboards. The statement by American, European Union and Chinese officials reflects the rapid growth of international e-commerce, which the officials said “has created new challenges” in protecting consumers from ...

  WONSAN / AP The bright red slogans hang from buses, government buildings and even some restaurants and gas stations, urging North Koreans to work harder to make the country’s 200-day “speed campaign” a success. “Have you carried out the plan for today?” one poster asks. It’s the second such drive this year, and while outside economists doubt their effectiveness, ...

  BLOOMBERG Stocks gained with U.S. equity-index futures and the pound strengthened to its highest level this year as the U.K.’s referendum on membership of the European Union got under way. European shares rose to a three-week high in above-average trading amid a vote that past opinion polls indicated was too close to call. A gauge of sterling advanced for ...

  Bloomberg The best start to a year for commodities since 2008 is leaving copper in the dust. The metal is one of the weakest of the 22 raw materials in the Bloomberg Commodity Index of returns this year and the worst of the major metals. “If you look at where iron ore, coking coal or oil have gone this ...