Visso /AFP Italy was counting the cost on Thursday after another major earthquake forced thousands to flee their homes in terror but “miraculously” did not cause any fatalities. Two months after a quake left nearly 300 dead in the country’s tremor-prone central spine, two powerful shocks ripped through the mountainous, sparsely-populated region on Wednesday evening. Despite numerous building collapses, ...

  Seoul /AFP South Korean prosecutors on Thursday set up a high-powered “task-force” to probe a widening scandal involving alleged influence-peddling by a close confidante of President Park Geun-Hye. Choi Soon-Sil, an enigmatic woman with no government position, was already part of an investigation into allegations that she used her relationship with the president to strong-arm conglomerates into multi-million dollar ...

  Bloomberg Boeing Co. will remain a cash-generating juggernaut even if weak demand forces deeper production cuts to the 777 jetliner, a crucial source of profit, Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg said. Cash flow will increase next year and in 2018 as the Chicago-based planemaker fills a record backlog of orders and reaps its first profits from the 787 Dreamliner, ...

  Berlin / AFP Strikes at German low-cost airlines Eurowings and Germanwings led to the cancellation of nearly 400 flights Thursday, stranding some 40,000 passengers, a spokesman for the two companies said. The airlines, owned by flag carrier Lufthansa, are locked in disputes with the Ufo flight attendants union. Eurowings staff are calling for salary increases and improved working conditions ...

  AMSTERDAM / Reuters Qatar Airways expected talks with the European Union on new air traffic services agreements will take several years, and Qatar will focus on ensuring the EU’s planned fair competition clauses do not disadvantage the carrier, its CEO said. “We’re still in the early days of negotiating with the EU, and one area of particular notice is ...

  Bloomberg GKN Plc said it’s preparing to take an earnings hit as Airbus Group SE halves the build rate for the A380 superjumbo, and it may cut 230 jobs at a United Kingdom helicopter-parts plant as the aerospace industry wrestles with ebbing demand for older models and production glitches afflicting new aircraft. Airbus’s decision to slash A380 output to ...

  Bloomberg Kering SA shares rose to the highest in more than 15 years after strong demand for new Gucci handbags and sandals contributed to the fastest quarterly sales growth since 2012, boding well for luxury-goods makers as Christmas approaches. The stock jumped as much as 8.3 percent to 204.10 euros in Paris, the highest since June 6, 2001, when ...

  Bloomberg The plastic explosive was molded into a thin sheet and hidden inside a laptop, the kind of hard-to-detect bomb that keeps airport security chiefs awake at night. Terrorist devices such as this are the reason fliers have to remove laptops from carry-on bags at security checkpoints before boarding airplanes. But at a lab in an industrial park outside ...

  Frankfurt / AFP Troubled German lender Deutsche Bank reported on Thursday a surprise profit in the third quarter, confounding expectations of further expensive legal pain for the Frankfurt institution. “We continued to make good progress on restructuring the bank,” chief executive John Cryan said in a statement. “The results for the quarter demonstrate well the strengths of our operating ...

  Bloomberg Barclays Plc said profit rose 35 percent in the third quarter as revenue from fixed-income trading surged to the highest in more than two years. Barclays Plc said profit rose 35 percent in the third quarter as revenue from fixed-income trading surged to the highest in more than two years. The results may help Chief Executive Officer Jes ...