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FRANKFURT AM MAIN — Hundreds of thousands of car enthusiasts are set to flock to Frankfurt’s IAA motor show in few day where auto giants hope to show off their electric prowess as scandal-plagued diesels take a backseat.

Two years after “dieselgate” crashed the last IAA party, when Volkswagen’s public admission that it had cheated on diesel emissions tests embarrassingly coincided with the fair, organisers are hoping to turn the page by focusing on the cleaner cars of the future.

But as more automakers have come under suspicion and concern about diesel pollution has grown, industry expert Stefan Bratzel expects the mood at this year’s 10-day extravaganza to be “mixed”.

“On the one hand, the auto industry is enjoying its best years ever in terms of sales and profits, but on the other it’s wondering what’s going to happen in future,” said Bratzel of Germany’s Centre for Automotive Management.

“Diesel and its harmful emissions are a topic of hot debate right now, especially in Germany, creating an image problem for the entire industry.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, eyeing a fourth term in a September 24 general election, will on Thursday formally open the 67th International Motor Show, in what promises to be a more politically charged event than in past years.

Dieselgate has wormed its way into the German election campaign as voters fret over the resale value of their cars and over diesel bans mooted by some cities.

While Merkel has said she had been “angered” by the cheating scam, she has also been careful not to demonise a sector that is the backbone of the German economy and employs more than 800,000 people.

“Diesel, and the internal combustion engine, will exist for many, many years to come,” she said in a recent interview.

But other countries are not so sure. Both France and Britain have announced plans to ban the sale of new diesel and petrol cars by 2040 to clamp down on harmful emissions.

“All this uncertainty surrounding diesel and gasoline engines will hang over the trade show,” predicted Flavien Neuvy, auto expert at France’s Observatoire Cetelem.
No shows

Automakers around the world are responding to the challenges by dramatically shifting focus to electric and automated vehicles, belatedly joining a race started by Silicon Valley giant Tesla to take zero-emission cars into the mainstream.

In the run-up to the IAA, which alternates each year with the Paris Motor Show, German luxury carmaker BMW and Britain’s Jaguar Land Rover became the latest manufacturers to promise electric or hybrid models across all their brands in coming years.

In Frankfurt, fairgoers will get a chance to get up close and personal with BMW’s first electric Mini, while Volkswagen plans to show off an updated concept of its self-driving ID Crozz, an SUV crossover, and Daimler hopes to wow with its Mercedes-AMG hybrid “supercar”.

But lovers of gas-guzzlers need not despair, as the IAA is promising plenty of traditional fare as well with a string of urban SUVs lining up to steal the limelight, including Renault’s budget Dacia Duster.

Despite all the buzz, the year’s most-talked about car will be conspicuously absent from the Frankfurt convention centre: Tesla’s Model 3.

The much-hyped model aims to be the first electric car for the masses with a starting price around $35,000 and a battery range of 354 kilometres.

“We’re not a traditional carmaker,” Tesla said about skipping the IAA.

But it joins a string of other noticeable no-shows, continuing a trend seen at other car shows in recent years. 

Fiat Chrysler, Nissan, Peugeot and Volvo are all staying away from Frankfurt, as companies search for more innovative and less costly ways to engage with customers.

“Car shows, like cars, need to keep reinventing themselves,” Matthias Wissmann, chief of Germany’s VDA auto industry federation, told AFP.

BENGALURU — Amazon.com Inc. said on Thursday it was searching for a location to build its second headquarters in North America that would cost more than $5 billion and house up to 50,000 staff.

The e-commerce company, which is headquartered in Seattle, said it was seeking proposals from local and state government leaders and would select the location next year.

Amazon's workforce has exploded to more than 380,000 from under 25,000 since it moved to Seattle in 2010, as it rapidly expanded to become a global retailer — selling everything from groceries to appliances.

The company's total revenue has grown to $136 billion at the end of last year from $34 billion in 2010. Amazon recently snatched up Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion.

Amazon said the new headquarters should ideally be located in a metropolitan area with more than 1 million people, potentially giving the company a shopping list of more than 50 cities to choose from.

The project would initially need more than 4.6 hectares and up to 74.3 hectares beyond 2027, Amazon said.

"We want to find a city that is excited to work with us and where our customers, employees, and the community can all benefit," Amazon said.

Amazon is looking for a favorable tax structure and local government subsidies, incentives that have attracted other companies like Taiwan-based Foxconn to build facilities in the United States.

Foxconn plans to build a $10 billion liquid crystal display factory in Wisconsin. The state's Republican-controlled government had voted to approve a bill aimed at establishing a $3 billion incentive package for the plant.

Amazon expects the new headquarters to be a "full equal" to its Seattle office, Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said in a statement.

The Seattle campus is spread across 75.2 hectares in 33 buildings and employs more than 40,000 people.

Amazon's shares were up 1 per cent at $978 on Thursday morning.

HANOI — Vietnam and Egypt agreed on Wednesday to nearly triple trade to $1 billion, including with ship-building and IT contracts, as Egypt seeks to kickstart its sputtering economy and forge ties with fast-growing Asian nations.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi is in Hanoi for a two-day visit — the first ever by an Egyptian leader — aimed at drumming up business ties with the country.

"We discussed means to reinforce bilateral ties in many areas, in particular in economics, especially in light of Vietnam's achievements in the fields of industry and commerce," Sisi told reporters. 

Egypt's economy tanked after a 2011 revolution that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak, and though growth has steadily recovered, reaching 4.3 per cent last year from 1.8 per cent in 2011, it is still hampered by high inflation.

Last year the International Monetary Fund approved a $12 billion loan to prop up the ailing economy. 

Vietnam's President Tran Dai Quang called for more trade with Egypt after officials signed nine agreements on Wednesday, including in the areas of transport, fisheries and investment.

"We are determined to bring bilateral trade volume to $1 billion in the future," Quang said, adding they would focus on ship-building, IT, seaports, manufacturing and agro-processing.

Egypt is Vietnam's second biggest trading partner in Africa, though trade has faltered in recent years, hitting $316 million last year from $395 million in 2014.

Sisi's visit comes as Vietnam courts international investment from new allies in Africa and the Middle East.

Analysts say Hanoi is looking to drum up trade deals after the US pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership in January, a major blow to Vietnam which was set to gain enormously from the 12-nation pact. 

Vietnam is one of Asia's fastest growing economies, clocking more than 5 per cent annual growth over the past five years. 

Sisi will attend a business forum on Thursday before departing. 

Insights and tips from travel specialists, Wego - the largest and most popular travel marketplace in the Middle East, covering Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt, and more.

Tumbling down from the spiked tops of snow-mantled Svaneti, where the Greater Caucasus Mountains come dressed in spruce forests and topped with moss-growing stone towers, Georgia's backcountry rarely fails to draw a gasp.

It's a land of mist-plumed summits and glaciers, of deep valleys filled with woods, and dusty canyons that spill over into the sloshing sky-blue waters of the Black Sea. And that's without even mentioning the incredible cityscapes: Tbilisi, buzzing with nightlife; Batumi, peppered with palm trees; Telavi, the gateway to the ancient Kakheti wineries. Yep, there are plenty of reasons why you should explore Georgia right now… 

The mountains

Whether you come to don the salopettes and hit the ski slopes, or wax down the walking boots and head out on ancient caravan routes through the peaks, you can rest assured that Georgia has you covered. Much of the country is given over to mountain ranges, with the craggy tops of 5,000-meter-high summits soaring to the clouds in the Greater Caucasus in the north, and the lower ridges of the Lesser Caucasus rising in the south.

Winter sees the cable cars and pistes of resorts such as Bakuriani and Gudauri come to life, while spring heralds the beginning of the hiking season in Upper Svaneti – a mosaic of alpine valleys, fir forests, and carved rock gorges aplenty.

The people

There are plenty of reasons Georgia is famed for its hospitality. It might be the perennial smile worn on the faces of the rustic country folk, going about their business between the crumbling stone towers of Mazeri. It might be the slosh of the local wines in that are uncorked behind the cellar doors of Kakheti region, always clinked with a happy gaumarjos (cheers). It might be the excited way in which the locals of Tbilisi talk about their country; enthralled with its intricate past; excited and inspired for its future.

Because Tbilisi can't be beaten

Straddling the undulating banks of the Kura River, Tbilisi is a city that pulses with life.

The old medieval walls of Narikala Fortress tower on the ridges above the town, standing watch like something out of Game of Thrones. They survey the maze-like mix of cobbled streets and carved Orthodox churches that is Old Tbilisi – the place to go for a taste of real history.

Other districts are imbued with elegant Art Nouveau mansions, bubbling Turkic hammams, grand neo-classical palaces, and even relics of the old Russian tsars. There's oodles to see.

NEW YORK — The US dollar rose broadly on Wednesday on speculation the European Central Bank (ECB) could step in to weaken the euro and after strong US economic data boosted expectations for a solid US jobs report on Friday. 

The euro was on track for its biggest daily percentage drop against the dollar in nearly four weeks, of about 0.6 per cent, putting it back below $1.2 after touching a more than 2-1/2-year high of $1.2069 on Tuesday. It last traded at $1.1906.

Analysts said traders were starting to suspect that ECB President Mario Draghi could be growing more concerned about the euro's rise, despite making no mention of the currency's strength at a central bank gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming last Friday. 

Draghi's omission of commentary on the euro that Friday had contributed to the currency breaking past the critical $1.2 level on Tuesday. The euro is up more than 13 per cent against the dollar this year.

"The euro has gone way too fast, too quickly," said Dean Popplewell, chief currency strategist at Oanda in Toronto. "People are starting to sit back and wonder: 'what is the ECB going to do about inflation still being below expectations in Europe?'"

The ECB is set to hold a policy meeting next week. 

The dollar also gained after the Commerce Department said its second estimate of US gross domestic product showed that it increased at a 3 per cent annual rate in the second quarter, its quickest pace in more than two years.

The ADP National Employment Report showed US private-sector employers hired 237,000 workers in August for the biggest monthly increase in five months, also boosting the greenback and driving expectations for a solid US August non-farm payrolls figure.

The dollar touched a two-week high against the yen of 110.43 yen after the US data, rising further off a 4-1/2-month low of 108.25 struck Tuesday following North Korea's launch of a ballistic missile over Japan. 

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was last up 0.6 per cent at 92.799 after temporarily hitting a more than 2-1/2-year low of 91.621 on Tuesday. 

"Even if you have a small positive surprise [in non-farm payrolls], even around 200,000, that may extend the bid tone for the dollar," said Mazen Issa, senior currency strategist at TD Securities in New York. 

The dollar index pared gains slightly after US President Donald Trump dismissed any diplomatic negotiations with North Korea, saying "talking is not the answer".

DOHA — Two of the world's largest energy producers, Qatar and Russia, vowed on Wednesday to increase trade ties at a time when the emirate is facing an economic boycott from neighbouring states.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the commitment after a "lengthy" meeting in Doha with his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, and before that, the country's Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani.

"We are committed to bolstering trade and economic ties," Lavrov told reporters afterwards.

He added that Moscow "attached great importance" to economic cooperation, including energy, between the two countries, a sentiment echoed by Sheikh Mohammed.

Russia and Qatar are two of the world's top four gas producing countries.

Both are also major oil producers, and last year Qatar spent billions on taking a stake in Russia's state-controlled oil company, Rosneft. 

Qatar has turned to expanding its economic ties after a group of countries led by Saudi-Arabia and United Arab Emirates cut off political and trade links with Doha on June 5, initiating the Gulf's worst political crisis in years.

The bloc accuses Qatar of supporting extremism, a charge the emirate denies.

On the crisis itself, Sheikh Mohammed said there had been little change and accused Saudi and others of ignoring Qatari calls for dialogue.

"Now we have reached 90 days of the crisis we are still in the same position," he said.

"We haven't seen any change or development in reaching the end of the crisis."

He accused Saudi Arabia and its partners of ignoring "on at least 12 different occasions" Qatari calls for talks on resolving the diplomatic impasse.

Lavrov — who has also visited Kuwait and the UAE as part of his Middle East tour — called for all parties to find a solution.

He said the disputing countries should work with regional mediators Kuwait to resolve the crisis.

"We are convinced that there's a need to seek a solution by searching for mutually beneficial approaches through dialect," said the Russian foreign minister.

"It's in our interests for the GCC to be united and strong," he said, referring to the Gulf Cooperation Council comprised of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

ASTANA, Kazakhstan — Kazakhstan inaugurated on Tuesday a new internationally-controlled uranium fuel bank seen as potentially important in curbing nuclear proliferation and reducing regional security tensions.

The bank is capable of storing enough low-enriched uranium fuel to light up a large city for three years and it is hoped that access to the fuel will dissuade countries from launching their own nuclear enrichment programmes. 

Iran's nuclear programme set off years of tensions across the region and with the West amid concerns it was looking to build an atomic bomb.

The bank "will function under the complete control of the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA]", which operates under the auspices of the United Nations, President Nursultan Nazarbayev said at the ceremony held in the capital Astana.

The new low-enriched uranium bank is located over 800 kilometres away in the northeastern town of Oskemen.

Having given up its own nuclear weapons following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan portrays itself as a key player in nuclear diplomacy. It is the world's top producer of raw uranium.

The Central Asian country hosted talks on Iran's nuclear programme in 2013.

The IAEA called the opening of the facility, which does not yet contain any fuel, a "key milestone" offering confidence to countries about the availability of nuclear power fuel.

Built at a cost of $150 million, the 880 square-metre structure will contain up to 90 tonnes of low-enriched uranium that is suitable to make fuel for a typical light-water reactor, or one that uses ordinary water.

A reserve of this size would be able to power a large city for three years, according to the IAEA. 

Billionaire philanthropist Warren Buffet provided $50 million in startup cash for the bank.

SINGAPORE — Crude prices recovered slightly in Asian trade on Tuesday a day after heavy falls caused by the impact of monster storm Harvey on a key US oil-producing region.

Harvey battered into Texas on Friday as a Category Four hurricane, tearing down homes and businesses on the Gulf Coast, and triggering massive floods.

The storm caused the closure of many oil platforms in the Gulf, and about a fifth of the region's oil output remained shut down, according to US authorities.

With markets Monday fearing demand for crude could be hit, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) sank $1.30, while Brent finished 52 cents lower.

But in early afternoon trade in Asia Tuesday, WTI edged up 22 cents to $46.79 while Brent added 17 cents to $52.06.

But analysts said prices are expected to remain subdued as the shutdown of oil refineries would lead to higher crude stockpiles.

"Given that a significant portion of refining capacity in the US Gulf Coast is shut, we are likely to witness a situation of high domestic crude stockpiles, which will put pressure on prices," Amit Musaddy of energy consultancy Trifecta told AFP.

A total of 105 of the 737 offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico were evacuated before the storm made landfall on Friday, according to the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. By Monday, 98 remained closed. The Gulf of Mexico alone accounts for 20 per cent of US production.

SEOUL — Lawyers for the jailed heir to the Samsung empire filed an appeal against his conviction on Monday as South Korean media divided on the ruling that put the country's top business leader behind bars.

Lee Jae-yong, the de-facto head of Samsung Electronics, was found guilty last week of bribing South Korea's ousted president Park Geun-hye and sentenced to five years in prison.

The official website of the Seoul Central District Court showed that Lee's lawyer Kim Jong-hoon filed an appeal on Monday but gave no further details.

Prosecutors have also said they will appeal the court ruling — to seek a harsher punishment for Lee.

A Samsung Group spokeswoman declined to comment.

But another Samsung Electronics vice chairman, Kwon Oh-hyun, called the situation "regrettable" in a statement to employees of the world's biggest smartphone maker, the Yonhap news agency reported.

"We should all steadily wait until the truth is revealed," it cited him as saying, urging them to "gather power and wisdom to overcome the unprecedented challenge".

South Korea's media have divided over the unprecedented imprisonment of the country's most powerful tycoon, with some newspapers condemning the ruling and others accusing their rivals of "kneeling" before the rich.

Samsung is by far the biggest of the chaebols, as the family-controlled conglomerates that dominate Asia's fourth-largest economy are known, with its revenues equivalent to around a fifth of the country's GDP.

Chaebols were instrumental in South Korea's economic rise, but have long had murky connections with political authorities and are also known to wield considerable influence on the media, potentially courtesy of their giant advertising budgets.

The JoongAng Daily, a company with close family ties to the Samsung Group, said in an editorial that an appeal by Lee would have "a good case".

The country's top-selling Chosun Ilbo Daily, which is conservative in outlook, added: "The company faced retaliation if it rejected the president's request and faced punishment for bribery if it gave in."

Samsung was the first South Korean company to  emerge as a top global firm and it would be "worrisome" if the verdict proved "a negative turning point" for it, the paper said, unable to make key business decisions for years with its leader in jail.

But liberal papers heralded the ruling and slammed other media outlets for siding with the country's rich.

The Hankyoreh paper expressed concerns about the "amicable attitude towards Lee and Samsung" from "conservative media and business papers".

Their argument that evidence was lacking, it said, was "irrational", adding: "It is hoped they will no longer ask to become the press that kneeled before the chaebol."