US airlines may ban voice calls on flights

  Bloomberg The US Transportation Department proposed requiring airlines to tell consumers if passengers can use mobile phones for calls during their flight, and said it’s considering banning voice calls, rekindling a years-long debate centered on jabbering seatmates in close-quarter cabins. “Consumers deserve to have clear and accurate information about whether an airline permits voice calls before they purchase a ...

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Aviation sector to post strong results in 2017

  Bloomberg The aviation industry is set to post record net earnings this year and is expected to remain profitable in 2017, despite rising oil prices and global political turbulence, its trade association said. “Airlines continue to deliver strong results. This year we expect a record net profit of $35.6 billion” (33 billion euros), said Alexandre de Juniac, the new ...

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Lululemon surges after Q3 earnings top estimates

  Bloomberg Lululemon Athletica Inc. soared the most in more than eight years after third-quarter earnings blew past analysts’ estimates and sales showed signs of strengthening as the yogawear maker heads into the holiday season. Profit in the quarter was 47 cents a share, excluding some items, the Vancouver-based company said in a statement. Analysts estimated 43 cents on average. ...

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Faster Frappuccinos as Starbucks joins WeChat payments

  Bloomberg WeChat lets users text friends, post selfies and pay a gas bill with a smartphone. From now, the blockbuster Chinese app, known as Weixin Pay in China, can also be used to buy a Java Chip Frappuccino. Starbucks Corp. said it will accept the payments system at about 2,500 of its cafes across China, enabling customers to complete ...

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Deutsche Bank ‘may have rigged’ index in Paschi deal

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG employees may have manipulated internal indexes as part of an allegedly fraudulent scheme to help Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA conceal losses, according to an audit commissioned by German regulators. The study, requested by watchdog Bafin and seen by Bloomberg, says an internal Deutsche Bank review described ‘abnormalities’ in the values of proprietary ...

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Credit Suisse rises as CEO Thiam pledges $1bn more cost cuts

  Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG rose in Zurich trading, leading European bank shares higher, as Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam pledged to cut an additional 1 billion Swiss francs ($1 billion) in expenses and lowe- red profit targets that were seen as too ambitious. Thiam, who was updating investors after cutting more than 6,000 jobs this year as part ...

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‘Zombie banks’ give Ukraine nightmares

  Kiev / AFP Ukraine’s central bank keeps trying to shut them down but they keep surviving: ‘zombie banks’ are roiling the impoverished country’s financial system through the help of allegedly crooked courts. The former Soviet republic — labelled the continent’s most corrupt state by the European Court of Auditors on Wednesday — needs financial aid from the International Monetary ...

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Weak lira could knock Turkish bank off targets

  ANKARA / Reuters Weakness in the Turkish lira could start to drive up prices and knock the central bank off its targets in the first quarter of next year, but the impact will depend on the pace of economic activity, Governor Murat Cetinkaya said. At a news conference on the central bank’s monetary and exchange rate policy for 2017, ...

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Sony announces new games, controller for smartphones

  Bloomberg Sony Corp. is stepping up efforts to gain a foothold in mobile gaming. It has announced 11 new mobile titles and unveiled Project Field, a thin, lightweight device the size of a kitchen cutting board that connects to real-world objects so they can be used for controlling games on smartphones and tablets. “We believe this is a brand ...

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Google hits renewable energy goal in quest to pare pollution

SAN FRANCISCO / AP Google is crossing a milestone in its quest to reduce pollution caused by its digital services that devour massive amounts of electricity. The internet company believes that beginning next year, it will have amassed enough renewable energy to meet all of its electricity needs throughout the world. That’s significant, given Google’s ravenous appetite for electricity to ...

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