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MOBILE / AP A European aircraft maker Airbus conducted the inaugural test flight on its first US-made jetliner, calling the exercise a success after the plane flew for hours over the Gulf of Mexico. The A321 passenger jet took off and landed at Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley, site of the company’s new plant near downtown Mobile, Alabama. The three-hour flight ...

BEIJING / Bloomberg Haier Electronics Group Co.’s earnings grew last year at the slowest pace since 2008 as sales fell at the China-based maker of washing machines and water heaters, and it predicted industry growth will be restored this year despite a tough 2016. Net income rose 10 percent to 2.7 billion yuan ($416 million) in the year, in line with ...

Bloomberg Lining up Continental former Chief Executive Officer Gordon Bethune as part of a board slate for United Airlines is merely a ruse by two hedge funds to “smash and grab from United’s coffers,” according to the carrier’s pilot union. The funds enlisted Bethune “to play on employees’ good will and feelings of nostalgia,” leaders of United’s chapter of the ...

NEW YORK / AP Hiring top retail executives has long involved a game of musical chairs. But with consumer spending behaviour turned upside down in the era of web shopping, retailers need to look beyond the seasoned industry execs with the long resumes, says veteran executive recruiter Les Berglass. Since founding his firm in 1990, he has been placing top ...

DPA The coach carrying tourists passes its third tractor, then a cyclist and horse-drawn cart on the six-lane highway running from Havana towards Vinales some 180 kilometres to the west. The driver brakes to give way to four cows crossing the wide strip of asphalt. “What a highway!” grins John Johnson, one of a party of tourists from California and ...

Dubai / EMIRATES BUSINESS Chuck E. Cheese has launched its second UAE destination at Ibn Battuta Mall, Dubai. Launched in the US during the 1970s, the life-sized animated mouse Chuck E. and his friends have been entertaining kids across the world for nearly four decades, thanks to the safe, family-friendly environment that kids and parents just love coming back to. ...

DPA The days of scribbling “I woz here” on Florence’s historic monuments are gone: from now on would-be vandals will be able to graffiti via app instead, with their messages kept for posterity. “Welcome to Giotto’s Campanile!” reads a message on a digital tablet for visitors scaling the Gothic white, green and pink marble tower by the famed Italian architect, ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Aabar Investments PJS , an Abu Dhabi-based diversified investment company, agreed and signed a loan facility worth 3.6 billion euros with a lead syndicate of global banks. The five-year senior unsecured, non-guaranteed facility serves to refinance several of Aabar’s pre-existing facilities, and was arranged on tighter terms compared to previous facilities reflecting the company’s improved credit ...

ABU DHABI / WAM HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, attended the signing of an agreement between the Follow-Up Committee of the Initiatives of the UAE President and Arabtec Holding to build 1,100 housing units for Emiratis in Fujairah’s Mohamed bin Zayed City(MBZ) at a total cost of AED1.712 billion. The ...

ABU DHABI / WAM HH Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Managing Director of ADIA, issued an open letter on the occasion of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority(ADIA) celebrating its 40th anniversary: Over the course of the past four decades, ADIA has evolved from a small operation using shared office space to become one of the world’s largest and most ...