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The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has warned overseas organisations selling to Australia that noncompliance with the proposed GST Low Value Goods legislation amendment may result in their websites being blocked. The comments were made in response to a question posed by the Senate Economics Legislation Committee on Friday, which is looking into the Treasury Laws Amendment (GST Low Value Goods) Bill 2017 that will see goods under […]

Oman’s new low-cost carrier, SalamAir, has announced the launch of flights to Saudi Arabia with plans to also start services to Pakistan. Flights to Saudi Arabia started this week with return ticket prices starting at OR89, with Oman’s first budget airline flying daily to Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport. The carrier said in a statement that it also plans to start operations to the Saudi holy city […]

By Leika Kihara and Francesco Canepa | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON International Monetary Fund members on Saturday dropped a pledge to fight protectionism amid a split over trade policy and turned their attention to another looming threat to global economic integration: the first round of France’s presidential election. Concerns that far-right leader Marine Le Pen and far-left rival Jean-Luc Mélenchon, both critics of the European Union, could top the […]

 “Thousands of new doors opened and rents soared. This created a bubble, and like housing, that bubble has now burst.”         – Richard Hayne, Urban Outfitters CEO, March 2017 The devastation in the US retail sector is accelerating in 2017, and in addition to the surging number of brick and mortar retail bankruptcies, it is perhaps nowhere more obvious than in the soaring number of store closures. […]

The conventional wisdom says that the days of the mainframe are numbered, but it just might be that a new generation of apps will breathe new life into it. A state-of-the-mainframe survey by Syncsort shows that the mainframe market as ever is experiencing some shrinkage, but also that there are some grounds for optimism. Syncsort has been working on mainframes since 1968 and has customers in more […]

Two Saudis were among a mainly Qatari hunting party freed after a 16-month hostage ordeal in Iraq, Saudi media reported on Saturday. The 26 hunters, initially believed to all be Qataris, were flown to Doha on Friday after being handed over to Iraqi authorities. Jeddah-based newspaper Okaz named the two Saudis as Salem bin Abdulhadi al-Merri and Mohammed Abdullah al-Merri and said they were expected to be […]

WASHINGTON Member countries of the International Monetary Fund on Saturday pledged to work to reduce global imbalances but failed to repeat their past pledge to resist all forms of protectionism. The International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), the IMF’s steering body, also repeated its past commitments on currency exchange rates. “We will refrain from competitive devaluations, and will not target our exchange rates for competitive purposes,” the […]

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Researchers found that certain search terms revealed AI bias. Credit: Princeton University In debates over the future of artificial intelligence, many experts think of the new systems as coldly logical and objectively rational. But in a new study, researchers have demonstrated how machines can be reflections of us, their creators, in potentially problematic ways. Common machine learning programs, when trained with ordinary human language available online, can […]

By Ginger Gibson | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump’s promised “big announcement” next week on overhauling the U.S. tax code, a top campaign pledge, will consist of “broad principles and priorities,” an administration official said on Saturday. The president unexpectedly said on Friday at a Treasury Department event that there would be “a big announcement on Wednesday having to do with tax reform.” In a Twitter message […]

The Congressional Leadership Fund’s ad blitz has been particularly scathing, with one spot panning Ossoff for his college glee club stylings and dressing up as Star Wars’ Han Solo. The super PAC is funded in large part by GOP megadonors such as billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam Adelson; Houston Texans owner Robert McNair and fossil fuel giants Chevron and Devon Energy. So far, […]

The top 100 start-ups in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) together have raised over $1.42 billion in funding and each has raised more than $500,000 individually, according to new research. Following a record year of more than $870 million in startup investment, analysts MAGNiTT published a report into the backgrounds of the founders of MENA’s most successful start-ups. It said the 100 start-ups, including the […]

Data-driven analytics applications are eating the world and transforming every domain. But the world is also being eaten up in a different way by several non-sustainable practices. On Earth Day, we look at what we know about the relation between big data and the environment: how big data is used to measure sustainability and inform action, and what is the impact they have on the environment as […]

BOSTON Officials of two large California public retirement systems said Friday they are voting against nine of 15 Wells Fargo & Co directors up for election at the bank’s annual meeting next week, citing the bank’s phony-account scandal. Leaders of the largest U.S. state pension system, known as CalPERS, said in an email it is voting about 13.9 million shares against the bank nominees, including its chairman, […]

After sitting through a course in table manners last week, I’m confident I have previously ruined many chances to impress at formal dinners simply because I did not sit down properly or forgot to place my napkin to the left of the plate when I was ready to leave the table. Participants at the Dining Like A Diplomat workshop, organised by the Protocol School of Washington in […]

Challenging market conditions have led to flexible and revised approaches from landlords across Muscat in an effort to entice prospective tenants, according to real estate consultancy Cluttons. The Cluttons Muscat Spring 2017 Property Market Outlook has identified an increasing flexibility of finance terms, as landlords work to ensure high occupancy rates at a time of weaker demand across the real estate market. It said subdued economic activity […]

Only a minority of the world’s pipelines can be cleaned with pigs like this one. Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto Around one-third of the world’s gas pipelines can be inspected using ‘pipeline pigs’. These cylindrical devices have figured in three James Bond movies, in one case being modified to secretly transport a person across borders. Back in the real world, the problem is that the other two-thirds of the […]

Malaysia and Abu Dhabi have reached agreement on a partial debt settlement for embattled government fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), the Straits Times reported, citing financial executives it didn’t identify. Under a deal that could be signed as soon as Friday, Malaysia would pay Abu Dhabi $1.2 billion before the end of this year and negotiate on a further $3.5 billion, the Singapore-based paper said. A proposed […]

NEW YORK United Continental Holdings Inc (UAL.N) said on Friday Chief Executive Oscar Munoz will not become chairman in 2018, under an amendment to his employment agreement approved after an uproar over the treatment of a passenger. In a reversal of his earlier employment agreement, Munoz has opted to leave “future determinations related to the Chairman position to the discretion of the Board,” United said in a […]

22 April 2017 Doha – Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), in collaboration with the Embassy of the United States of America in Doha, will be hosting Terry Jones – a world-renowned entrepreneur and speaker – on Tuesday April 25th for a lecture on innovation, digital relationships, and leadership in the wired age.  This is part of the Embassy’s speaker series, which brings out experts on various topics […]

The Power Transmission and Distribution Business of L&T Construction has won its single largest order in the Middle East from the Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation, also known as Kahramaa. The order relates to Kahramaa’s ongoing electricity transmission network expansion plan which aims to meet the ever-increasing demand for power in the Gulf state. The $817 million order will involve the engineering, procurement and construction of […]

Apple has developed a testing procedure for drivers who would act as failsafe controls during autonomous vehicle testing, documents discovered by Business Insider via a public records request show. The documents detail the testing procedure that Apple has created in order to comply with the California Department of Motor Vehicle’s rules regarding autonomous testing on state roads. Business Insider’s report on the documents detail the development platform being used by […]

By Francesco Canepa and Gernot Heller | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Global economic leaders on Friday continued downplaying possible friction with the Trump administration over currencies, trade and other potentially contentious issues, even while acknowledging that much about the U.S. president’s plans remains unclear. On a day when Donald Trump himself seemed focused on domestic matters – promising a new U.S. tax plan next week and announcing reviews of […]

ABU DHABI // An app that helps Syrian refugees find jobs in Turkey and a device that limits water consumption were named winners at the New York University Abu Dhabi Hackathon. Eighty students from universities across the globe participated in the seventh edition of the event. Ten teams were given 72 hours to produce technology that promotes a social good. With the Hiat application, recruiters and businesses […]

The welcome After some confusion finding the valet parking service – the entrance is not where you would expect and signage is not straightforward – when I eventually pull up, I am attended to promptly and efficiently. At the reception counter, I’m greeted with a smile, but despite requesting an early check-in and having it confirmed before arrival, the room is not ready. After a 10-minute wait […]

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