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  Bloomberg The serial airline entrepreneur trying to launch Argentina’s first low-cost carrier is betting the government will deregulate the industry enough to make his venture viable. And if it doesn’t, he’s got a back-up plan. Julian Cook, 43, chief executive officer of Flybondi, said he’s been told by Tourism Minister Gustavo Santos that price floors for airlines will be ...

  New York / AFP Ikea will pay $50 million to settle with the families of three small children in the US who were killed by dressers that tipped over, attorneys representing the families said. Attorneys from Feldman Shepherd announced the settlement after a two-day mediiation overseen by a federal magistrate judge. The three families will share the $50 million, ...

  Washington / AFP British Airways (BA) cabin crew have suspended a two-day strike planned over Christmas, labour union Unite announced after securing a new deal with the airline. Almost 2,000 British Airways cabin crew, or more than one in seven, were due to walk out on Christmas Day and December 26 (Boxing Day) in a dispute over pay. Talks ...

  Bloomberg American Airlines flight attendants filed a grievance with the carrier over new uniforms they say have caused headaches, skin irritation and other health problems since being introduced in September. The airline should either stop issuing the clothing or allow workers to wear their previous outfits, Bob Ross, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, said in a ...

  New York / AFP European stocks and Wall Street traded nearly flat in a quiet session before Christmas, with banks topping the agenda after huge US fines and a bailout in Italy. London closed marginally higher in a half-day session, as upwardly revised data showed the British economy grew 0.6 percent in the third quarter despite Brexit jitters. In ...

  Bloomberg The silence was deafening. On the afternoon of December 9, Marco Morelli, chief executive officer of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, was preparing for a board meeting in the lender’s Belle Epoque-era offices in Milan when the news hit: the European Central Bank had rejected his bid for more time to raise the 5 billion euros ...

  Washington / AFP The US Justice Department sued the British financial giant Barclays, accusing the bank of massive fraud in the sale of mortgage-backed securities which contributed to the global financial crisis of 2008. Barclays was one of several major banks implicated in the crisis, along with Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Credit Suisse, that so far ...

  Bloomberg Kazakhstan has extended an emergency loan to the country’s biggest bank, the first step in what could be a rescue that may reach 1.5 trillion tenge ($4.5 billion), according to people familiar with the plans. A bailout is among the alternatives under discussion between officials from Kazkommertsbank JSC and the central bank as Kazakhstan edges closer to its ...

  Mbau / AFP Antoine Kakule Kihumuledi longs for a car to transport his cocoa crop and, like fellow residents in the Beni region in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, he wants peace so he can pursue his dreams. Kakule, 51, is a pioneer in cultivating cocoa in this area of Nord Kivu province, which has been ravaged by war ...

  Madrid / DPA Two years ago, a district in Madrid got lucky in Spain’s hugely popular Christmas lottery, with people working or living there winning prizes of between 120,000 and 3.0 million euros. As Spaniards gear up for the next windfall from the world’s richest lottery known as el “Gordo”, or the “Fat One”, AFP asked the 2014 winners ...