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  DUBAI / Reuters Bank Muscat, Oman’s largest lender, posted a 1.3 percent increase in fourth-quarter net profit on Sunday, according to Reuters calculations, in line with analysts’ estimates. The bank made a profit of 39.7 million rials ($103.2 million) in the three-month period ending Dec. 31, up from 39.2 million rials a year earlier. Bank Muscat didn’t disclose a ...

  Dubai Annika Falkengren, the chief executive officer of SEB AB, will leave the Swedish bank after running it for 11 years. SEB, which was founded by Sweden’s Wallenberg family in 1856 to become Stockholm’s first private bank, will now start looking for a replacement for Falkengren, the board said in a statement on Monday. The 54-year-old, who will step ...

  Bloomberg Societe Generale SA named Didier Valet as its third deputy chief executive officer, promoting its investment-banking head as the French bank prepares a new business plan. Valet, who turned 49 on Sunday, was appointed to the newly created position on Jan. 13. and will retain his role as head of corporate and investment banking, private banking, asset management ...

  Bloomberg Nintendo Co.’s new Switch gaming console won’t be in stores until March 3, but the machine is fully baked and ready to play. The press got a chance to try out the new machine at an event in Tokyo last week, and events will be held in Japan and North America to let people experience the product before ...

    WASHINGTON / AP Artificial intelligence is still in a “mainframe era” in which computing power is concentrated in a few companies’ hands, Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said in a presentation in Munich on Monday. The computer industry is “worshiping” technology companies that can simulate real-world processes using AI software, but to become more useful the ...

  HAVANA / AP Two days before Christmas, Luis Gonzalez received a little Chinese modem from Cuba’s state-owned telecommunications company. The 55-year-old theater producer connected the device to his phone and his laptop computer, which instantly lit up with a service unimaginable in the Cuba of just a few years ago — relatively fast home internet. “It’s really easy to ...

  BERLIN / AP Facebook says it’s introducing measures to tackle the spread of fake news in Germany, months before the country holds a national election. The social network said on Sunday the investigative media group Correctiv will be its first outside fact-checker in Germany and it’s working to bring aboard other media organizations. It said updates to make it ...

  New York / DPA Tourists Rob and Mary Ann Gorlin are delighted. Ignoring the many attractions that New York City is famous for, they have come early to 72nd Street Station, the newly opened subway station on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. “It’s immaculate and beautiful inside,” says Mary Ann, who hails from Detroit. After inspecting the new network diagram ...

  Geneva / DPA For more than 60 years, scientists from all over the world have been coming to CERN, the high-tech laboratory that straddles the Franco-Swiss border. You might not know this, but studious CERN is also a kind of playground for brainy people who work hard and play hard. The fun side makes it easier for particle physicists ...

  ABU DHABI / Emirates Business Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (ADNEC) on Sunday unveiled the official platforms and hashtags of the International Defence Exhibition & Conference (IDEX 2017) and Naval Defence Exhibition (NAVDEX 2017) on key social media platforms. For IDEX 2017, ADNEC has selected #IDEXUAE as the official English hashtag and #NAVDEXUAE as the official English hashtag of ...