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Frankfurt / AFP German retail sales, a closely watched measure of household confidence, rose in January, suggesting consumer sentiment in Europe’s top economy remains robust, official data showed on Monday. Retailers’ sales expanded by 0.7 percent in January compared with December, the federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement. The previous month, retail sales had risen by 0.6 percent. ...

Auckland / Bloomberg A Boeing Co. 777-200LR will touch down in Auckland, New Zealand, on Wednesday after journeying 8,824 miles from Dubai, grabbing the title of world’s longest scheduled airline flight for Gulf carrier Emirates. Not to be outdone, Qatar Airways will this year offer services to Santiago in Chile, some 140 miles further again, as well as its own ...

Bloomberg Amazon chose “leap day” to announce its tie-up with British supermarket chain Wm Morrison. Internet delivery specialist Ocado would no doubt prefer to wipe this particular date from the calendar. The arrival of Amazon on the scene isn’t great for British grocers Tesco, Sainsbury and Wal-Mart’s Asda, who are doing battle with German price-slashers Aldi and Lidl. For Ocado, ...

Dallas / Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co. will be the first carrier to receive Boeing Co.’s new Max version of its best-selling 737 aircraft. Those planes may sit idle unless a new contract with the carrier’s 8,000 pilots is reached. Their union says the Max isn’t listed in the current labor agreement as an aircraft they can fly, a common practice ...

ALKESH SHARMA / EMIRATES BUSINESS Building on strong sales performance in the UAE in 2015, BenQ Middle East & Turkey, the renowned provider of digital lifestyle products and global DLP projector leader, has strengthened its presence in the UAE by opening two new shop-in-shop concepts. “2015 was a strong year for us in the UAE where we experienced 30 percent growth ...

DUBAI / OUR CORRESPONDENT Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), the flagship venue for world-class events, is all set to host 22 mega-trade events in this month alone which is set to draw over a quarter million visitors. As a pivotal arm in Dubai’s efforts to diversify its economy, DWTC will host events across core sectors including ICT (information and computer technology), ...

FUJAIRAH / WAM Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, approved on Monday projects for the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, worth AED7 billion, during a field visit to the East Coast. The projects include approvals for housing aid, the building of new residential complexes, roads, schools, health centres ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The Higher Organising Committee of the second Unmanned System Exhibition, UMEX 2016, and the pilot edition of the Simulation Conference and Exhibition 2016, has revealed that the upcoming editions of the region-leading defence events will offer 6 times more exhibition space compared to the debut edition of UMEX last year. The much-anticipated defence events, covering the ...

SHARJAH / WAM The Ministry of Economy (MoE) and the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority, Shurooq, on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen ties, increase commercial, economic cooperation and expand investment opportunities in Sharjah. The MoU was signed by Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, Chairperson of Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq), and Sultan Al Mansouri, ...

DUBAI / WAM Etisalat Group and Huawei have announced plans to work on the first ever Proof of Concept and design for an all-inclusive network architecture for the Etisalat Regional Cloud Factory. Once developed, the enterprise solutions provided by the innovative Cloud Factory will be offered to businesses across Etisalat’s international footprint. The initiative will examine the technical and business ...