Masonry Layout

  NEW DELHI / AFP Indian business leaders on Thursday hailed the passage of a landmark tax reform bill that paves the way for a new national sales tax and the creation of a common market across the country for the first time. Lawmakers voted late on Wednesday in favour of introducing the long-awaited Goods and Services Tax (GST), which ...

  AFP A string of overseas investments has shone a new spotlight on Chinese conglomerate Fosun, after the mysterious disappearance — and re-emergence — of its tycoon chairman rattled investors. In the space of three days last week, the Shanghai-based company bought a stake in an Indian drugmaker for $1.26 billion, acquired a Brazilian investment firm and announced plans to ...

  Berlin / AFP German industrial giant Siemens lifted its annual earnings forecast on Thursday after booming demand for renewables fattened order books in the second quarter, but warned of increasing geopolitical risks. For the financial year ending September, the group said it expected profits per share between 6.50 and 6.70 euros ($7.24-7.46), compared with the 6.0 to 6.40 it ...

  Brighton / AFP The world’s tallest moving observation tower, the i360, opens to the public on Thursday, a futuristic landmark that has transformed the historic seafront in the English tourist resort of Brighton. A 162-metre (530-foot) high steel tower is ringed by a doughnut-shaped glass observation pod that gently glides up and down. The design is meant to be ...

  Sirte / AFP Libyan pro-government forces battled to retake territory in the IS group stronghold Sirte on Wednesday, but faced fierce resistance from extremist snipers and mines. Fighters allied to Libya’s UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), supported by US air strikes, are trying to retake the coastal city — hometown of slain dictator Moamer Kadhafi — from IS ...

  Ras Al Khaimah / Emirates Business Ras Al Khaimah recorded a 23 per cent increase in visitors from India during the first six months of 2016 compared to the corresponding January-June period last year, according to the Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA). The positive growth trend during 2016 ranks India as the third largest international source market ...

  Dubai / WAM The Dubai Supreme Council of Energy (DSCE) has joined the Building Efficiency Accelerator (BEA) partnership, launched by the United Nations (UN), to double the rate of energy efficiency by 2030. Building efficiency policies can result in 25-50 per cent reductions in energy demand from both new and existing buildings, saving money and reducing pollution. “DEWA adopts a ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) successfully enhanced its track record by once again receiving the ISO 10004:2012 certification, for defining and implementing processes to monitor and measure customer satisfaction. HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA, received the certificate from representatives of the international evaluating organizations. This certification enhances the ongoing ...

  Bloomberg The UK risks facing a deluge of residency applications as European Union citizens dash to formalize their right to stay in the wake of the Brexit vote. The warning comes from the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory, which said in a report that registering more than 3 million European nationals already living in the U.K. would present a ...

  Washington / AFP Letitia stands on a metro station platform in downtown Washington, waiting for a train that she now realizes is not going to come. “I will be walking home tonight and all the nights to come,” said the 28-year-old woman, who works as a cashier at a 24-hour supermarket. In the US capital city, an urgently needed ...