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Microsoft co-founder dies at 65

Microsoft Corporation co-founder Paul Allen died Monday at age 65, according to a statement released by one of his companies. Vulcan Inc. said Allen passed away in Seattle, Washington due to complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of cancer affecting the immune system. “It is...

Saudi stocks dive 7.0 percent, wiping out 2018 gains

Saudi stocks dived 7.0 percent in early trading on Sunday as the oil-rich kingdom comes under increasing international pressure over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Tadawul All-Shares Index (TASI) quickly lost more than 500 points on the first trading day of the...

War reduces Syria’s wheat crop to smallest in 30 years

Syria’s wheat crop this year was the smallest in three decades as war and drought cut production by around 30 percent, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said Tuesday. Output of 1.2 million tons in 2018 was the lowest since 1989 and compared with a pre-crisis average...

Qatar to buy fuel for Gaza's only power plant: UN official

A top United Nations official said Tuesday that Qatar is buying fuel to restart the only power plant in the beleaguered Gaza Strip. Jamie McGoldrick, the U.N.'s resident humanitarian coordinator, said this will add a few more hours of electricity for Gaza's 2 million residents, who...

Foreign investment in Egypt falls, pain ahead

Foreign direct investment in Egypt’s nonoil economy fell in the second quarter to its lowest levels since just after an IMF-backed austerity plan began nearly two years ago, a sign that more pain may lie ahead before Egyptians begin reaping benefits. Egypt is counting on new private-sector...

Oil giant Aramco IPO by 2021: Saudi crown prince to Bloomberg

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that oil giant Aramco's initial public offering will go ahead by early 2021 after reports emerged the plan had been scrapped, Bloomberg reported. "I believe late 2020, early 2021," Prince Mohammed told Bloomberg in an interview published late...

Extortion and abuse: Myanmar workers arrive debt-laden in Thailand

A "mafia" of recruitment agents is trapping Myanmar migrants to Thailand in debt bondage despite a 2017 law meant to fight exploitation in the kingdom's notoriously shadowy job market, activists and workers say. Migrant labour -- much of it from Myanmar -- has propped up Thailand's...

Toyota, Softbank unveil tie-up, eye autonomous vehicle services

Japanese car giant Toyota and conglomerate Softbank on Thursday announced they would create a joint venture to provide "new mobility services" including autonomous vehicles for services such as meal deliveries. The new company will be called "Monet" -- short for "mobility network" -- and...

Foreign drugs rare commodity in sanctions-hit Iran

"Talk of sanctions on Iran reemerged, and my essential medicine was no longer available," said Masoud Mir who suffers from thalassaemia, a genetic blood disease common in Iran. Mir, 36, is one of many patients in the Islamic Republic who not only have to deal with their disability, but...

Amazon bumps minumum wage to $15 amid tight labor

Online retail giant Amazon announced Tuesday it would raise its starting wage for US workers to $15 an hour, amid long-standing criticism of low pay, and advocate for a higher minimum wage nationwide. The pay raise will apply to 250,000 employees, starting November 1, and to the more...

Nigeria adopts softer tone on MTN

Nigeria appears to have taken a softer stance on Africa's leading mobile operator MTN, assuring stakeholders that a dispute over the repatriation of $8.13 in dividends will be "resolved". Talking to reporters in Abuja following a monetary policy committee meeting on Tuesday, Nigeria's...

Brent oil jumps to four-year high near $81

Brent oil soared Monday close to $81, reaching the highest level since November 2014 after OPEC and other global producers snubbed pressure from US President Donald Trump to dampen prices. At 0840 GMT, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in November soared to a peak of $80.94 per...

OPEC, allies end meeting with no pledge to boost supply

OPEC's leader Saudi Arabia and its biggest oil-producer ally outside the group, Russia, ruled out Sunday any immediate, additional increase in crude output, effectively rebuffing U.S. President Donald Trump's calls for action to cool the market. "I do not influence prices," Saudi Energy...

Porsche first German carmaker to abandon diesel engines

Sports car maker Porsche said Sunday it would become the first German auto giant to abandon the diesel engine, reacting to parent company Volkswagen's emissions cheating scandal and urban driving bans. "There won't be any Porsche diesels in the future," CEO Oliver Blume told the...

Trump’s Iran measures spark oil price fork

The relationship between two major oil benchmarks is charting an unexpected course as U.S. sanctions take Iranian crude out of the market. As demand for alternative Middle Eastern supply increases, regional marker Dubai crude has reason to strengthen. Yet it’s weakening against London’s...

Chinese premier slams 'unilateralism' in trade disputes

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang railed against "unilateralism" on Wednesday in a veiled allusion to the trade fight with the United States, and threw his weight behind further opening of the world's second largest economy. Speaking at the summer session of the World Economic Forum in the eastern...

Apple escapes China tariff hit for now, but threats loom

The latest round of tariffs imposed on China imposed by President Donald Trump appeared to largely spare Apple and other consumer electronics makers but they face increasing threats from the deepening trade war between the two economic giants. US officials on Monday slapped the tariffs on...

China sets retaliatory tariffs on $60bn in US goods

China Tuesday announced tariffs on US goods worth $60 billion in retaliation for President Donald Trump's decision to slap duties on $200 billion in Chinese products next week. Tariffs of between five and 10 percent will take effect on some 5,200 US products on Monday, on the same day...