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SEOUL — The world's biggest smartphone maker Samsung was scheduled to unveil its latest flagship model, the Galaxy S8, on Wednesday in New York as it seeks to move on from last year's humiliating burning handset recall.

Samsung Electronics was forced to abandon its premium Galaxy Note 7, originally intended to compete with Apple's iPhone, after a chaotic recall that saw replacement devices also catching fire.

The debacle cost the South Korean company billions of dollars in lost profit and hammered its global reputation and credibility, during a torrid period when it has also been embroiled in a corruption scandal.

Its vice-chairman Lee Jae-yong, heir to the parent Samsung group, has since been arrested and indicted for bribery, along with four other senior executives, in connection with a graft scandal that saw ex-president Park Geun-hye impeached.

Samsung blamed the Galaxy Note 7 crisis on faulty batteries from two different suppliers after numerous handsets caught fire.

The company apologised to consumers for causing concern and was forced to postpone the S8 launch.

In total 3.1 million smartphones were recalled as authorities in the US and elsewhere banned them from use on planes and even from being placed in checked luggage.

The company later embarked on a campaign to restore its battered reputation, issuing repeated apologies and putting full-page advertisements in US newspapers, admitting it "fell short" on its promises.

Samsung says it has also come up with elaborate step-by-step safety verification procedures for future products to prevent similar disasters.

The Verge, a US-based online news network specialising in technology, described the new device as Samsung's "biggest test ever".

"It now needs to reassert its reliability while also rebooting its technological advantage," it said.

'New era'

On its website, Samsung says the latest addition to the Galaxy lineup represents "the start of a new era", but has offered little information about its new hardware features.

Some leaked images of the new phone suggest the Galaxy S8 will sport a larger curved display than its predecessor the S7, maintaining a similar body size.

The home button on the front of the phone appears to have been replaced by a fingerprint scanner on the rear, while pundits speculate it will have an iris scanner, most likely used for unlocking the handset and authorising payments. 

The news website TechCrunch also reported that leaks suggest the new device will likely keep its headphone jack — setting it in opposition to rival Apple, which embraced wireless headsets with their iPhone 7 and 7 Plus phones released last year. 

Samsung announced last week that its new voice-powered digital assistant Bixby will debut with the phone, which will have a set of pre-installed applications that will work with the interface.

Bixby will differ from digital aides already on the market in ways that include controlling nearly all tasks in applications instead of limited sets, and being flexible when it comes to understanding what users are saying, according to Samsung.

The South Korean electronics giant late last year bought Viv, an artificial intelligence startup with co-founders who were part of the team that built virtual assistant Siri, which Apple bought some seven years ago.

While Samsung has yet to confirm a release date and pricing, the Galaxy S8 is expected to be available in late April with a price range of around $900 to $1,000.

DUBAI — Tech giant Amazon expanded its global reach on Tuesday with the announcement of a deal to buy Dubai-based Souq.com, the Middle East's largest online retailer.

The agreement, the financial details of which were not disclosed, brings Amazon into a fast-growing market, as it continues to invest in its core retail network despite expanding into a wide range of services.

It appears competition was fierce to acquire Souq.com, with the Amazon deal announced just a day after Dubai-based Emaar Malls confirmed offering $800 million to acquire the site.

Amazon had walked away from talks with Souq.com earlier this year, but it reportedly came back with an offer of $650 million.

Founded in 2005 as an auction site, Souq.com has evolved into a retailer and a marketplace for third-party sellers.

In a joint statement announcing the agreement, the two companies said the deal would be finalised this year "subject to closing conditions".

Souq.com Chief Executive and co-founder Ronaldo Mouchawar called the agreement "a critical next step in growing our e-commerce presence on behalf of customers across the region".

"By becoming part of the Amazon family, we'll be able to vastly expand our delivery capabilities and customer selection much faster, as well as continue Amazon's great track record of empowering sellers," he said in the statement.

Amazon Senior Vice President Russ Grandinetti said the deal made sense as both companies "share the same DNA". 

"We're both driven by customers, invention and long-term thinking," he said. 

"We're looking forward to both learning from and supporting them with Amazon technology and global resources."

Souq.com won a major vote of confidence last year and emerged as the highest-valued internet company in the region when it secured $275 million in funding from international investors to support its growth. 

At the time, Mouchawar said the e-commerce market in the Middle East was "growing very fast" and expected to reach $20 billion in 2016.

Known for its huge online retail operations, Amazon has been expanding into areas including cloud computing and streaming video where it is trying to rival Netflix. 

But online shopping remains at its core, with its retail operations taking in $26 billion in North America and $14 billion in the rest of the world in the last quarter of 2016.

Samih Toukan, the head of Jabbar Internet Group, an early investor in Souq, hailed the deal on Twitter, writing: "History is made".

He described the acquisition as the "biggest regional tech deal" since Yahoo! in 2009 purchased Maktoob, the first provider of Arabic e-mail services.

Mouchawar launched Souq from within Maktoob, which he joined after he landed in the United Arab Emirates in 2000. Born in Syria, Mouchawar had studied engineering and worked for several tech companies in the United States.

"This is a milestone for the online shopping space in the region," he said in a later statement to staff posted on Souq.com's website.

In an interview with Al Arabiya news channel, Mouchawar said he would remain as the chief executive of Souq.com, and that the company would keep its workforce. 

Souq.com attracts over 45 million visits per month.

LONDON — Qatar's Sovereign Wealth Fund said on Monday it would open an office in San Francisco to expand its growing US portfolio, and was still considering investing in a technology fund formed by SoftBank Group Corp.

The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), one of the most active of its kind, has stakes in everything from real estate to luxury goods — traditionally largely in Europe. But it has said it is looking to diversify its investments into Asia and the United States, according to Reuters.

"Soon we will be opening an office in the Silicon Valley in San Francisco," the fund's CEO, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al Thani, told reporters at an investment conference in London. 

"What we plan is to open the office hopefully by the end of this year, if not by end of this year then it will be first quarter of next year. It will be linked very commercially to our office in New York and we will take it from there," he said.

Qatar was considering investing in a $100 billion global technology fund formed by SoftBank Group Corp., the Japanese telecommunications and Internet company, and Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg reported in October.

"We are still in a study, but we haven't made a decision yet," Al Thani said on Monday. 

In 2015, Qatar said it would spend $35 billion in the United States over the next five years after opening an office in New York. In December the fund said it would invest $10 billion in infrastructure projects inside the United States.

The QIA has about $334 billion of assets according to industry tracker Sovereign Wealth Centre.

Qatar will also invest £5 billion in Britain within five years in a boost for the post-Brexit economy, Qatar's Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Al Thani told the press on Monday. 

"Over the next three to five years, Qatar will invest £5 billion ($6.23 billion, 5.8 billion euros) in the UK economy through various investment funds and relevant parties in Qatar — which will constitute another addition to its already successful investments in the UK," the Qatari official said, as he was also taking part in the Qatar-UK Business and Investment Forum in London.

The investments will focus on energy, infrastructure, real estate and services, the Qatari premier said shortly after appearing at the investment forum, which brings together over 400 British and Qatari business leaders and senior politicians.

Qatar has already invested more than £40 billion across Britain, including in iconic real estate, London's Shard building and the Harrod's department store.

British trade minister Liam Fox was also present at Monday's event, which moves to the central England city of Birmingham on Tuesday for its second and final day.

Fox was keen to show the world that Britain is open for business despite leaving the EU, and said that Qatar made an ideal post-Brexit trading partner.

"We have to stop viewing things through the prism of Brexit," he told the forum. 

"Qatar and UK are natural allies and I believe that private sector growth in both countries can enhance ties and promote foreign direct investment."

The minister insisted that Brexit would "accelerate the changes the UK has to undergo in a globalised world," and that other European Union members would also have to adapt to the shifting landscape of international trade.

WASHINGTON — Uber has grounded its fleet of self-driving cars pending an investigation into the crash of an Uber autonomous vehicle in Arizona, a spokesperson for the car-hailing service said on Sunday.

No one was seriously injured in the accident which occurred on Friday in Tempe, Arizona while the vehicle — a Volvo SUV — was in self-driving mode, the company said.

“We are continuing to look into this incident and can confirm we had no backseat passengers in the vehicle,” the Uber spokesperson said.

The accident occurred when the other vehicle “failed to yield” while making a left turn, Tempe police spokeswoman Josie Montenegros said.

“The vehicles collided causing the autonomous vehicle to roll onto its side. There were no serious injuries,” she said.

Self-driving Uber vehicles always have a driver who can take over the controls at any time.

Montenegro said it was uncertain whether the Uber driver was controlling the vehicle at the time of the collision.

The company grounded its self-driving vehicles in Arizona after the accident, and then followed up on Saturday pulling them off the road in Pittsburg and San Francisco, the two other locations where it operates self-driving vehicles, the company said.

The car-hailing service has been dented by a series of bad news stories, including disclosures about a culture of sexism, cut-throat workplace tactics and covert use of law enforcement-evading software.

A number of executives have left the company in recent weeks, including president Jeff Jones, as troubles have mounted.

Advocates of self-driving cars say that they can cut down on deadly traffic accidents by eliminating human error.

But there have been accidents, including a fatality in Florida in May when a truck struck a speeding Tesla that was on autopilot.

An investigation found no safety-related defects with the autopilot system, but concluded that the driver may have had time to avert the crash if he had been paying closer attention.

CAIRO, BRASILIA — Egypt said on Saturday it would resume importing meat from Brazil after a brief suspension following allegations that exporters in the Latin American country had sold tainted beef and poultry.

"We suspended it (this week) until we found out what happened and now it's back, but we won't import anything from slaughter houses or factories that have a problem," said Mona Mehrez, a deputy to the agriculture minister.

Brazilian meat exports were worth $63 million a day until last week's announcement by police of "Operation Weak Flesh," which revealed that some meatpackers had paid crooked inspectors to pass off rotten and adulterated meat as safe.

Brazil's government had appealed Wednesday to the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) 163 other members not to impose "arbitrary" bans on the country's more than $13 billion meat export industry.

Also on Saturday, Brazil said that major trading partner China had lifted a ban on the imports of its products.

"China announced today it has fully reopened its market to Brazilian meat," Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi said in a statement.

Maggi did not say when the resumption of Brazilian meat imports, suspended on Monday by China, would take effect.

The minister said China will keep in place only its import restrictions on meat from 21 Brazilian processing plants under investigation over the tainted meat scandal.

China is the second-largest importer of Brazilian beef, after Hong Kong, with more than $703 million in imports in 2016. For both meat and poultry, China also was in second place with nearly $859.5 million in imports.

The reopening of the Chinese market "attests to the rigour and quality of the Brazilian sanitary system" and "shows the spirit of mutual confidence between our two countries," Maggi said.

The scandal emerged on March 17 when Brazilian police said they had uncovered a scheme to bribe corrupt health inspectors at those processing plants to certify tainted meat as fit for consumption.

On Monday, China suspended all Brazilian meat imports, and Hong Kong took the same step the next day.

On Friday, Hong Kong announced it will recall Brazilian meat from the 21 processing plants under investigation.

ISTANBUL — As Istanbul builds a massive new airport and Turkish Airlines pursues aggressive route expansion, some in Turkey see the ban on large carry-on electronics on US and Britain-bound flights as a ploy to undermine their aviation industry.

The US and British decisions to forbid devices bigger than a cellphone in the cabin on flights from several Middle East and North African states could hit Istanbul particularly hard, after years building up its position as an international hub.

More than half of international passengers at Turkish Airlines, which is 49 per cent state-owned and serves 247 destinations outside Turkey, are transit customers who could instead travel through Europe or other hubs.

Fast-growing Gulf airlines such as Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways, which similarly depend on business-class flyers stopping over in places like Dubai or Doha for far-flung destinations, could also be hit. 

For Turkey’s national carrier, the setback comes as it prepares to relocate to a 10 billion euro ($10.8 billion) third airport in Istanbul, billed by the developer as the world’s largest and championed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a megaproject that will cement Turkey’s global standing.

“The biggest aim of the third airport was to use Istanbul as a hub. But if such security measures become permanent, this could reduce Istanbul’s appeal,” said Esra Sirinel, a deputy research director at Is Investment and an airline specialist.

Istanbul’s existing main Ataturk airport is struggling to cope with millions of transit passengers a month. The new airport will initially have the capacity for 90 million passengers when it opens in 2018, but ultimately aims to serve double that and to offer flights to more than 350 destinations. 

Turkey’s pro-government media, which, like Erdogan, often casts the country as a victim of foreign conspiracies, was quick to lambaste the new regulations.

“They’re afraid of THY [Turkish Airlines],” the Yeni Safak newspaper said in a front-page headline on Thursday, over a simulated image of the new airport glistening in the sun. It cast the move as a plot against Turkey’s national carrier.

“We need to stop THY,” read the headline on fellow pro-government daily Aksam, which claimed US carriers, facing stiff competition from Turkish Airlines and Gulf carriers, had lobbied for the move. 

Gulf airlines have been battling against a campaign in Washington by US carriers, which accuse them of receiving unfair subsidies, charges they deny.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has so far placed more emphasis on the job benefits of building jets for foreign carriers. Gulf carriers and Turkish Airlines are major customers of Boeing and between them have more than 440 Boeing jets on order, worth tens of billions of dollars.

‘Purely commercial decision’

The US restrictions apply to flights originating from 10 airports in countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey. The British restrictions do not include the UAE or Qatar but will affect Turkish Airlines and UK-based carriers including British Airways, easyJet and Monarch.

A senior Turkish government official questioned the basis for the restrictions, saying airport security in Turkey was no worse than in Europe and that laptops or tablets could still be used to carry explosives even if they are put in the hold.

“It appears this decision was made purely on commercial grounds, and it seems it was done to limit the advancements made by Turkish Airlines and by Turkey,” the official told Reuters.

Security experts say Washington and London may believe a laptop could disguise a bomb big enough to bring down a plane, warranting extra explosives checks which can be performed on luggage in the hold. Confining any device to checked baggage would also make it harder for a would-be attacker to trigger it, or to position it to bring the plane down.

Turkey’s foreign ministry said talks were underway to try to persuade the United States and Britain to exclude Turkish Airlines and Istanbul airport from the ban.

Istanbul-based brokerage Unlu&Co said Turkish Airlines and Gulf operators would be hit hardest by the regulations.

“[They] have the most to lose from the US ban since they rely on transfer passengers who may need access to laptops and other devices for business reasons and could easily travel via European hubs, like Frankfurt,” it said in a report.

Emirates said it would introduce a service letting customers use laptops and tablets until just before they board direct flights to the US from Dubai, and made clear on Thursday that the ban did not apply to its US-bound flights via Europe.

The Americas account for 14 per cent of Turkish Airlines revenue, according to the airline’s website, which does not break out figures separately for the United States or Britain.

PHNOM PENH — UNICEF on Wednesday condemned a company selling breast milk from “vulnerable and poor” Cambodian mothers to Americans, hitting out at the commercialisation of nutrients needed by babies inside the kingdom.

The issue emerged this week after Cambodia said it had halted exports from Utah-based company Ambrosia Labs, which claims to be the first of its kind to bank human breast milk sourced overseas and export it into the United States.

The firm’s customers are American mothers who want to supplement their babies’ diets or cannot supply enough of their own milk.

The milk is pumped in Cambodia, frozen and shipped to the US where it is pasteurised and sold by the company for $20 each 5 oz pack — roughly the volume of half a can of Coke.

Those donating their breast milk hailed from poor communities in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh, where the scheme helped families top up meagre incomes.

On Monday Cambodia’s customs department said it had stopped exports temporarily “because the product comes from a human organ” adding the government planned to hold talks on whether to let the trade continue. 

UNICEF — the arm of the UN protecting children — said excess breast milk should remain in Cambodia, one of Southeast Asia’s poorest countries, where many babies lack good nutrients. “Breast milk banks should never be operated by exploiting vulnerable and poor women for profit and commercial purposes,” Iman Morooka, the agency spokeswoman in Cambodia, told AFP.

“Breast milk could be considered as human tissue, the same as blood, and as such its commercialisation should be banned,” she said.

Malnutrition “remains a threat to children’s well-being in Cambodia, and proper breastfeeding is one of the key factors contributing to a child’s good health and nutrition”, she added.

Cambodian Health Minister Mam Bunheng declined to comment on the issue when contacted by AFP on Wednesday.

Ambrosia Labs did not respond to repeated requests for comment. 

In previous press interviews the firm said its model encouraged Cambodian women to continue breast feeding, earned them much needed extra income and helped plug milk bank shortages in the US.

AFP visited the offices of Ambrosia Labs last week in Stung Meanchey, a poor suburb of Phnom Penh.

The office, which is labelled Khun Meada (mother’s gratitude), was closed and women who sold their milk said they had been told operations were suspended.

Chea Sam, a 30-year-old mother, told AFP during an interview last week that she had been selling her breast milk for the last three months following the birth of her son.

She said she earned $7.5-$10 a day and she knew at least 20 other mothers doing the same.

In videos posted on the Facebook page of Khun Meada, several mothers appealed to the government to let them sell their milk to the company.

AMMAN — Representatives of Jordan Chamber of Industry discussed ways to increase industrial exports to Iraq as they participated in the meetings of the Jordanian-Iraqi joint committee, which commenced in Baghdad on Monday, according to a statement of the chamber.  

According to the chamber’s President Adnan Abul Ragheb, the chamber’s delegation worked to eliminate export-related obstacles facing economic sectors, mainly the industrial sector, highlighting the importance of the Iraqi market.  

Since its closure in 2014, Jordanian exports to the Iraqi market fell from around JD1.1 billion to around JD400 million by the end of 2016, he said.

Jordanian exports to the neighbouring country used to represent 20 per cent of the Kingdom’s total exports, he indicated.

The closure brought up transport costs, through other neighbouring countries, adversely affecting the competitiveness of local industrial products, Abul Ragheb added.

However, the Iraqi government promised to nullify in the near future a decision it took last year to levy 30 per cent in export fees.  

Moreover, representatives of both countries private sectors discussed the various constraints facing investors so as to deal with them. 

Abul Ragheb also lauded the efforts of the government’s team, led by Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply Yarub Qudah in drawing the viewpoints of the two sides closer. 

LONDON — Google, which has seen a slew of companies withdraw ads after they appeared alongside extremist content, said on Tuesday it was introducing new tools to give firms greater control.

"We know advertisers don't want their ads next to content that doesn't align with their values," Google's Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler said in a post on the internet giant's blog.

"So starting today, we're taking a tougher stance on hateful, offensive and derogatory content." 

The move came a day after an apology by a senior Google executive soon after the British government and a handful of top firms, including Marks and Spencer and HSBC bank pulled their advertisements after they appeared alongside extremist content on its internet platforms.

Schindler said Google will tighten safeguards to ensure that ads show up only against legitimate creators on its video-sharing site YouTube, and "is taking a hard look at our existing community guidelines to determine what content is allowed on the platform".

A boycott by firms worried about damaging their image could cause incredible damage to Google as advertising makes up the overwhelming majority of the internet giant's revenue.

Schindler said Google acknowledged that companies have brand guidelines, which dictate where and when they want their ads to appear, and that it wants to give them more control to do that.

"In the coming days and months, we're introducing new tools for advertisers to more easily and consistently manage where their ads appear across YouTube and the web," said Schindler.

The British government put its YouTube advertising on hold on Monday, saying "It is totally unacceptable that taxpayer-funded advertising has appeared next to inappropriate internet content — and that message was conveyed very clearly to Google."

A Marks and Spencer spokesman said: "In order to ensure brand safety, we are pausing activity across Google platforms whilst the matter is worked through."

CAIRO — The World Bank (WB) has disbursed another $1 billion in financial assistance to Egypt out of its $3 billion loan programme with the country, the bank said in a statement on Monday.

Egypt has been negotiating billions of dollars in aid from various lenders to help revive an economy hit by political upheaval since a 2011 revolt, and to ease a dollar shortage that has crippled imports and hampered its recovery.

"The government has taken important steps in implementing key policy and institutional reforms that are laying down the foundations for accelerated job creation and inclusive growth," said Asad Alam, World Bank country director for Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti in the statement.

The World Bank issued the first $1 billion tranche of the loan in 2015, with two more instalments of the same size to follow, linked to additional reforms that the government planned.

Faced with a gaping budget deficit, Egypt began a series of painful economic reforms and has taken steps to lower fuel subsidies, introduced a new value-added tax and let its currency float freely in the foreign exchange market in November to attract foreign inflows.

Hafez Ghanem, the World Bank's vice president for the Middle East and North Africa, told Reuters this month that Cairo's next set of economic reforms should focus on making its bureaucracy more transparent for investors.

Egypt expects to receive the second tranche of a $12 billion International Monetary Fund loan in May or June, Finance Minister Amr El Garhy told Reuters last week.