Bloomberg

By Al Jazeera Staff in Africa on February 24th, 2011
[Photo: Reuters]

As the uprising in Libya enters its eleventh day, we keep you updated on the developing situation from our headquarters in Doha, Qatar.

By Abid Ali in Business on September 8th, 2010
Photo by Getty Images

It sounds like the start of a joke. But these are the thoughts of Michael O’Leary, the chief executive of low-cost airline Ryanair.

O’Leary would like to fly short hop routes with only one pilot.

Let the bloody computer fly it,

he tells Bloomberg Businessweek. If the pilot was to have a heart attack then the flight attendant should land the plane, he says.

O’Leary tells the Financial Times that trains only have one driver.

In 25 years with over about 10 million flights, we’ve had one pilot who suffered a heart attack in flight and he landed the plane.  

By Abid Ali in Business on July 21st, 2010
Photo by EPA

Is BP bashing getting out of hand? The latest salvos from US legislators are over BP’s involvement in the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

David Cameron, the British prime minister, has defended BP saying the decision to release Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was the Scottish governments alone.

By Marwan Bishara in Imperium on February 20th, 2010
Photo EPA

The following excerpts from a January Bloomberg report about 'Dubai helping Iran evade sanctions' is an indispensable read.

It provides an interesting background for US silence about the escalatory alleged Israeli assassination of a Hamas leader in a fancy hotel in the middle of Dubai, bordering on complicity. (The assassins wore tennis outfits, some say, a reminder to Dubai who rejected an entry visa to Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer this time last year.)

Dubai is seen as a major obstacle in light of Washington's serious efforts at imposing a new round of biting sanctions against Iran as a way of forcing it to freeze its nuclear programme.

Unless it shuts down its trade and other economic transactions with Iran, including investments, tourism etc, as explained below, no sanctions could work effectively.

By Teymoor Nabili in Business on November 8th, 2009
Photo by Reuters

Now that some of the most respected institutions in corporate banking have been implicated in - and some destroyed by - dubious ethical and financial practices, it should come as no surprise that the same foul odour of corruption is now being detected lingering in the corridors of smaller companies on Wall Street.

Thus, the emergence of the biggest case of insider dealing ever uncovered, now spreading to implicate more and more people.

The Guardian's Will Hutton likens it to a poisonous melange of the worst characters in popular fiction, engaged in

a seedy world of secret tips, kickbacks and disposable, pre-paid mobile phones.

The Los Angeles Times writes of

By Abid Ali in Business on October 23rd, 2009
Photo by AFP

How much will Apple end up paying if it is successfully sued by Nokia for alleged patent infringements? Well, in a research note Bloomberg obtained from Piper Jaffray & Co's Gene Munster, Nokia in the "extreme scenario" could get $12 for every iPhone that Apple sells.

Nokia has asked for royalties going back to the launch of the iPhone two years ago. Apple has sold 33.7 million units. That would mean a payment to Nokia of more than $404 million.

A lot of money, but a drop in the ocean for Apple, which made a net income of $1.67 billion in the fourth quarter. Net income is the money a company shares among its shareholder after taking out all expenses, like tax, salaries and more. And Apple has about $34 billion in cash.