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  Bloomberg The Reserve Bank of Australia frequently seeks feedback on the health of the economy. It might want to call the debt counselors soon. Homeowners, consumers and property investors around Australia are making more calls to financial helplines as three warning signs back up the spike in demand: mortgage arrears are creeping up, lenders’ bad debt provisions have increased ...

  Bloomberg Running a wholesale grocery shop in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, 43-year-old Khan used to write as many as 40 checks a month to buy goods from sugar to Unilever NV tea bags. That changed when authorities, in a bid to clamp down on widespread tax avoidance, started charging a levy on every bank transaction above ...

  Bloomberg Rio Tinto Group is delivering on a promise to reward investors as it emerges from an industry-wide downturn by paying out a bigger-than-expected dividend and announcing a surprise $500 million share buyback. Last year’s 81 percent surge in iron ore prices helped the world’s second-biggest mining company report its first gain in annual profit since 2013, exceeding analysts’ ...

  Bloomberg Film director and lawmaker David Puttnam is proposing measures in the UK’s House of Lords aimed at frustrating Rupert Murdoch’s 11.7 billion-pound ($14.6 billion) plan to merge his US media company, 21st Century Fox Inc., with European pay-television broadcaster Sky Plc. The amendments to the proposed Digital Economy Bill would subject media acquirers to a so-called fit-and-proper test ...

  Bloomberg The controversial Dakota Access pipeline is set to gain the final go-ahead for completion after President Donald Trump asked for a speedy approval. The US Army said it will grant Energy Transfer Partners LP the easement it needs to finish the line that will ship almost half a million barrels of crude a day from North Dakota’s shale ...

  Bloomberg Apple Inc. has hired Timothy D. Twerdahl, the former head of Amazon.com Inc.’s Fire TV unit, as a vice president in charge of Apple TV product marketing and shifted the executive who previously held the job to a spot negotiating media content deals. The moves suggest a renewed focus on the Apple TV and on providing more content ...

  Sharjah / Emirates Business An independent survey covering the most powerful and dynamic global economies, has named Sharjah as one of the top ten cities in the world for connectivity. Ranked at number six, Sharjah comes ahead of Frankfurt, Manchester, Miami and Dubai, reflecting its superb regional infrastructure and attraction as a business destination for foreign investors. Announcing the ...

  Dubai / WAM The World Government Summit (WGS) 2017 announced it has received thousands of nominations in the first edition of the World GovTechioneers Race. The contest was launched in December 2016 to encourage global government entities to enhance their services, implement smart government initiatives, and develop partnerships to identify innovative solutions to challenges facing the world. In line with ...

  JERUSALEM / AP A Palestinian Cabinet minister on Tuesday called on the international community to punish Israel for a contentious new law, just hours after the Israeli parliament adopted the bill to retroactively legalize thousands of West Bank settlement homes built unlawfully on private Palestinian land. The explosive law, approved by lawmakers late on Monday, is the latest in ...

  Dubai / WAM Dubai attracted 14.9 million overnight visitors in 2016, recording a healthy five percent increase over 2015, and an impressive four-year (2012-2016) compound annual growth rate or CAGR of eight percent since Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, launched the 2020 tourism strategy. According to the Department ...