Globalization is clearly under attack, whether we look at trade flows or foreign direct investment. Part of the backlash against free-market policies that followed the 2008 financial crisis, protectionism has been on the rise: The irony is that the very forces that are now attacking globalization were historically its fiercest advocates. And the early pioneers of free trade would ...

  The UAE is fast-tracking its transition towards green economy. It is taking a slew of measures that will pave the path for a development that has the least environmental impact and is sustainable. Real progress means taking a course in which economy and ecology complement each other. To achieve a low-carbon economy, it is imperative that the culture of ...

  NEW DELHI / AP Indian police arrested 70 people and are questioning hundreds more after uncovering a massive scam to cheat thousands of Americans out of millions of dollars by posing as US tax authorities and demanding unpaid taxes, a police officer said on Thursday. According to police in Mumbai, the yearlong scam involved running fake call centers which ...

  Hanoi / AFP Vietnam and Iran pledged on Thursday to boost future trade to $2 billion, as Tehran seeks to jump-start its sputtering economy after crippling international sanctions were lifted this year. Iran’s moderate President Hassan Rouhani, in Vietnam on a three-country swing through Southeast Asia, has come under fire from conservative critics who say the nuclear deal signed ...

  Tokyo / AFP Shares in Japanese IT giant Fujitsu soared on Thursday on news it is considering merging its struggling personal computer division with China’s Lenovo, the world’s biggest PC maker. A deal would mark the latest move by a Japanese firm to hive off struggling divisions to repair their finances, with Toshiba and Sony among a string of ...

  Jakarta / AFP Indonesia hailed a tax amnesty as a major success after it raised more than $7 billion in its first few months, but criticism is mounting that the controversial scheme lets the super-rich off the hook. Authorities began the flagship policy with much fanfare in July, asking Indonesians to declare their hidden wealth in exchange for paying ...

  Seoul / AP Samsung said on Thursday it was buying a prominent US artificial intelligence (AI) start-up founded by the creators of Siri — the voice-based digital assistant used on the iPhones of arch-rival Apple. The South Korean giant said the acquisition of California-based Viv Labs would bolster voice-based services across the full range of its electronics products that ...

  Bloomberg If allowing your smartphone to run out of power during the day doesn’t make you feel silly enough, consider this: Every hour it’s idle in your pocket or bag, the sun is bathing the earth in enough energy to run the world economy for a year. The obvious fix here is to turn every square inch of your ...

  Chicago / AFP A US flight was evacuated prior to takeoff when a passenger’s Galaxy Note 7 — reportedly a replacement in Samsung’s global recall — caught fire, landing the company in new controversy. Samsung has been struggling with a recall of 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 handsets due to complaints of exploding batteries, a problem the replacement phones ...

  AFP A shiny new cohort joined the workforce in Taiwan on Thursday — a troop of mini robots all going by the name “Pepper”, enlisted to entertain customers and give them the hard sell. Chinese-speaking Pepper was introduced into two banks and an insurance company in the capital Taipei, dancing to music, playing with children in lobbies and leading ...