Ottawa / AFP The Ford Motor Company reached a new labor agreement with the union representing more than 6,400 auto workers at the company’s plants in Canada, averting a strike. The deal includes a commitment from Ford — similar to those offered by General Motors and Fiat Chrysler in earlier talks — to invest more than Can$630 million (US$470 ...

  Bloomberg TAG Heuer will open an office in Silicon Valley, marking the first time a big Swiss watchmaker has expanded into the cradle of the US technology sector and cementing its smartwatch alliance with Google and Intel Corp. The office, which opened Nov. 1 and is located on Intel’s campus in Santa Clara, California, will house about a dozen ...

  AFP An International Monetary Fund team arrived in Kiev on Thursday to check on cash-strapped Ukraine’s books and set out a series of tough conditions for the disbursement of further loans. The IMF approved a $17.5-billion (15.8-billion-euro) rescue package for the war-scarred former Soviet republic in 2015 to help it recover from two years of savage recession and allow ...

  Bloomberg Egypt has agreed to buy about 400 megawatts of solar capacity, a sign that developers are slowly moving forward with clean-energy projects after a currency crisis in the country this year slowed the industry. The power-purchase contracts are worth about 600 million euros ($662 million), according to Mohamed Salah El Sobki, executive chairman of Egypt’s New and Renewable ...

  Bloomberg Business activity in Egypt hit its lowest level in more than three years in October, shrinking for a 13th month amid a foreign currency shortage, the pound’s weakness in the black market and accelerating inflation. The Emirates NBD Purchasing Managers Index for non-oil activity fell to 42 from 46.3 the month before, the weakest since July 2013, according ...

  Reuters Egypt’s Supreme Investment Council approved a host of measures to boost investment that included an extended suspension of capital gains tax on shares and tax exemptions for producers in strategic sectors. Egypt has been trying to attract investment to restore growth since an uprising in 2011, which ushered in protracted political turmoil and scared away tourists and foreign ...

  Bloomberg Oil rebounded from its longest losing streak in two months as uncertainty over an OPEC output deal amid growing US crude stockpiles and the upcoming American election kept markets volatile. US inventories rose by a record last week, and OPEC members claiming exemption from an agreement to limit supplies boosted production in October. While the stockpile gain was ...

  Doha / AFP Qatar’s population has passed the 2.6 million mark as the emirate draws in thousands of workers to build the infrastructure for the 2022 football World Cup, official figures showed Wednesday. The tiny Gulf state has seen a more than four-fold increase in its population since 2000 as oil and gas revenues have fuelled a rapid economic ...

  Reuters Iran’s carpet makers are distancing themselves from their government in promoting their handmade work as they seek to regain valuable US sales and protect jobs following the removal of economic sanctions. “Iranian carpets are produced by female and male weavers who are managed by the private sector, so the government does not have a big influence,” Hamid Kargar, ...

  Bloomberg Global oil majors BP Plc and Rosneft PJSC are eyeing a piece of India’s $117 billion retail market for fossil fuels, threatening to shake up government-owned companies that have faced little competition for a decade. BP has already secured licenses to open as many as 3,500 fuel stations in the world’s second most-populous nation. Rosneft gained access to ...