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Canada, home to some of the world’s largest gold-mining companies, recently announced that it had effectively liquidated all of the country’s holdings of the shiny metal and is moving to what a government spokesperson described as “easily tradable” assets. It has been a long process. Canada held 1,088 tons of gold in 1955. By 2000, it was down to 46 ...

Bloomberg Prologis Inc., the world’s largest owner of industrial real estate, would like to buy more property in the U.K. That’s unlikely to happen until the country decides whether it wants to stay in the European Union in June. “For the sake of another quarter, let’s just wait,” Ben Bannatyne, president of Prologis in Europe, said in an interview at ...

Dubai / Emirates Business A slowing economy hasn’t had any sort of impact on Qatar’s residential rental market, with a 7 per cent gain last year following on from the 14 per cent annual growth experienced in 2014. But rental growth numbers are starting to pick up some slack, according to a CBRE report. Growth “during the second half of ...

Muscat / Emirates Business As many as eight international companies have been pre-qualified to bid for developing independent water projects (IWPs) at Salalah, Shaqiyah and Duqm. The Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) , which oversees the procurement of all new electricity generation and water desalination capacity in the country, said that these firms comprise a consortium of International ...

Muscat / EMIRATES BUSINESS Muscat National Development and Investment Company (ASAAS) unveiled its second mega-project this year announcing its plans to build a four-star hotel and an Urban Park, managed and operated by Hilton Worldwide under the brand Hilton Garden Inn. The project, a result of an agreement with Muscat Municipality will come up in a 16,000sq m plot in ...

Bloomberg Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., owner of brands such as Westin, Sheraton and W, said it plans to accept a $13.2 billion takeover bid by China’s Anbang Insurance Group Co. and gave suitor Marriott International Inc. a deadline to make a counteroffer. Anbang and its partners will pay $78 a share in cash for Starwood, according to a ...

AFP As Twitter marks its 10th birthday on Monday, it is somewhat of an awkward child — having become a powerful communication tool but still struggling to win users and reach profitability. Since making a star-quality entrance a decade ago, Twitter has become a must-have tool for journalists, activists and celebrities but has struggled to show it can expand beyond ...

Emirates Business Microsoft Gulf highlighted the opportunities open to the region’s small and medium enterprises in adopting enabling technologies, as it remarked on the success of the SME World Summit 2016, held in Dubai earlier this month. Speaking after company’s participation as exclusive technology partner at the summit, Haider Salloum, SMB Director, Microsoft Gulf, said, “Microsoft is committed to becoming ...

AFP A new iPhone, new iPad, Apple Watch features, and iOS update are expected to form the bulk of Apple’s livestreamed presentation from Cupertino at 1pm EST (8pm UTC) on March 21, 2016. The iPhone SE is the highest probability candidate for Apple’s March 2016 Special Event, if the reports by tech sites like 9to5mac and Apple Insider prove correct.Rather ...

AFP A middle-aged white man sees himself as a young black woman being taunted by a racist. A grandmother glimpses herself as a teen. A star athlete experiences what life would be like in a wheelchair. These are not plots of dystopian movies. They are experiences that take place in virtual reality, which technologists believe will be the next major ...