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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Defends Free Internet in India

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, is continuing to advocate for his company’s plan to offer free but limited Internet access in India. Facebook’s Free Basics Internet service, formerly called Internet.org, has faced opposition in India, which has more people without Internet service than any other country. Critics of Zuckerberg’s plan have said that the service is contrary to Net neutrality, the principle that Internet providers allow equal access […]

Rare evacuation of Syria towns as deadly blasts hit Homs

Gulfnews.com A convoy of ambulances carrying more than 125 fighters from the besieged rebel-held Syrian town of Zabadani arrive at the Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, December 28, 2015. Beirut: A rare UN-backed deal between Syria’s warring sides saw hundreds of fighters and civilians evacuate three towns on Monday, as bomb blasts in the regime-held city of Homs killed at least 14 people. President Bashar […]

Comcast Tests Gigabit-Speed Internet Service in Philadelphia

Google Fiber, the gigabit-speed Internet service that is slowly rolling out to cities across the country, may soon have some competition from an established service provider. Philadelphia-based Comcast has announced that it is testing a new protocol known as DOCSIS 3.1, which it said has the potential to boost download speeds to the gigabit level. Unlike Google Fiber, which requires laying down an extensive fiber optic cable […]

Dubai surprises with 12% higher budget spend

Dubai plans to raise state spending by 12 percent in 2016 as it invests in infrastructure to sustain economic growth, but an equal rise in revenues will allow the emirate to balance its budget, the government said on Sunday. The Dubai budget for next year envisages spending  of 46.1 billion dirhams ($12.6 billion), up from 41.2 billion dirhams in the 2015 budget plan. The 2015 budget featured […]

Salesforce Grabs Quote-to-Cash Firm SteelBrick for $360 Million

CRM giant Salesforce is working to fortify the quoting and billing functions of its software platform. To do so, the customer relationship management company just snapped up SteelBrick. Financial terms of Salesforce’s acquisition of the six-year-old startup were not disclosed in the announcement. But the technology giant’s regulatory filing reveals the deal is worth $360 million. That’s about half of the rumored price on the street. Salesforce […]

Oil at even $15 possible in 2016

Oil speculators are buying options contracts that will only pay out if crude drops to as low as $15 a barrel next year, the latest sign some investors expect an even deeper slump in energy prices. The bearish wagers come as OPEC’s effective scrapping of output limits, Iran’s anticipated return to the market and the resilience of production from countries such as Russia raise the prospect of […]

Terrafugia to test futuristic flying cars

Vamien McKalin/Flying cars – it is something we view as more interesting than driverless cars. Who want cars driving us around when we can get in a car capable of  flying us from one destination to the next? Terrafugia is working to make this a possibility in the coming years. Recently, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved Terrafugia’s plan to test its flying cars in U.S. airspace. […]

Twilight of easy money

|By Matein Khalid| In retrospect, the last six years were a unique period in global central banking, an epic monetary experiment that averted a Great Depression after Lehman’s failure and interbank/credit contagion plunged the world into recession in 2008-9. Yet the Fed (and later Bank of Japan, ECB and even PBOC) quantitative easing also led to asset bubbles, credit market excesses, currency wars and the mispricing of […]

Samsung Electronics to start making new chips for AMD in 2016 – Electronic Times

A Samsung logo is seen at Samsung Electronics’ headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, December 18, 2015. Picture taken on December 18, 2015. Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji SEOUL Tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd will start making new chips for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc next year, South Korea’s Electronic Times reported on Tuesday citing unnamed sources. The paper said Samsung’s foundry business and Globalfoundries will jointly start producing a […]

Christmas without mum

Our father died six years ago, and this year our mother died. As the eldest child, I became responsible overnight for my brother and sister. I’ve never not looked forward to this time of year. The fact that I get to eat my bodyweight in food without feeling an ounce of guilt plays a big part in my high spirits during the lead-up to Christmas. The lights, […]

Stocks sell off after oil at 7-year low

Almost every Middle Eastern stock index declined after oil, the region’s main source of income, sank to the lowest in seven years, damping the outlook for government spending. Dubai’s DFM General Index ended its longest winning streak in almost three months, sliding 1.5 percent, the most in a week, to close at 3,026.05. Emirates NBD PJSC’s 4 percent retreat was the biggest contributor. The Tadawul All Share […]

Car Hacking: Are You At Risk?

There is an old cliché that goes, “they don’t make them like they used to.” With the pronounced computerization of contemporary cars in mind, that adage certainly stands tall. More than 50 percent of vehicles sold this year connect to the Internet in one or more ways, and it is predicted by 2025, every car will be connected in multiple ways. That brings up the issue of car hacking. […]

AN ILLUSTRIOUS INHERITANCE OF LOSS

NATIONAL HERALD – FROM GLORY TO PITS

By Harihar Swarup

The National Herald was a child of the freedom movement. It was started by Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru himself reported for the paper and Krishna Menon was its London correspondent. Mahatma Gandhi wrote in Harijan in 1942: “The National Herald is an institution.” From 1938 to 1942, it lived dangerously from day to day, ready to publish anything about the freedom movement, paying the penalty of successive securities, forfeited at the pleasure of authorities. It was ordered to submit its editorials to censorship, which it refused, and not given headlines to war news which it defied with ingenuity.

Nehru’s instructions were to try to live and serve the freedom movement but not to lower the flag. Gandhiji valued it as newspaper without fear. The newspaper was voluntarily closed under Gandhi’s call that new

Exclusive – Target in initial development of own mobile wallet: sources

The sign outside the Target store is seen in Arvada, Colorado in this January 10, 2014 file photo. Reuters/Rick Wilking/Files Target Corp (TGT.N) is in the early stages of developing its own mobile wallet, three people familiar with the matter said, joining Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) in posing a threat to recent entrants like Apple Pay. The fourth-largest U.S. retailer has not committed to launch the product, […]

Oil falls further as glut worsens

Crude slid to the lowest level in more than six years in New York as a rising number of oil rigs in the U.S. signaled the supply glut will be prolonged. Futures dropped as much as 1.9 percent after Baker Hughes Inc. reported that the number of active oil rigs in the U.S. climbed by 17 this week to 541. U.S. crude stockpiles surged to 490.7 million […]

Hyundai & Hoyt: The Ultimate Team

In 1977, Rick Hoyt told his father Dick he would like to participate in a 5 mile run. It was a benefit for a Lacrosse player who had become paralyzed. Rick was diagnosed at birth as a spastic quadriplegic with cerebral palsy, and was unable to walk or speak naturally.  Running a race seemed impossible but there are always ways to surpass those boundaries. Dick ran the race […]

INDIA HAS NO WORRY FROM LATEST FED HIKE

CHINESE SLOWDOWN HAS TO BE MONITORED

By Anjan Roy

At long last the US Federal Reserve – America’s central bank—has raised the interest rates, albeit hardly. This is the first hike in interest rates by the US central bank in over a decade.

The US Fed rate hike has been by a very small margin – from zero to just about 0.25% to 0.5%. It was so gradual and soft that the rate hike did not cause the disruptions in the global financial markets that everyone expected from such a decision.

The first question here is how will it affect India? It should not, and this has been borne out by what happened in the day after the Fed rate hike. The stock market remained more or less flat. The exchange rate also remained stable. The fund managers did not immediately think of taking money out of India and that left the financial markets unruffled.

But then w

TRINAMOOL CONFIDENT OF WINNING SOUTH BENGAL

RURAL DEVELOPMENT MAY CLINCH 2016 POLL FOR MAMATA

By Ashis Biswas

As the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and opposition parties gear up for the next round of West Bengal Assembly elections, their campaign themes have been established.

The TMC is contesting on a ‘development’ slogan, while the twin pillars of the opposition’s campaign will be ‘lawlessness and economic stagnation’, broadly speaking.

At first sight, the TMC’s claim of having improved the state’s economy may look suspect, if not downright dubious, to most observers. However, initial impressions may be deceptive. After 54 months of its tenure, the ruling TMC has consolidated its position in rural Bengal. Especially in the highly populated South Bengal districts, which account for most of the 294 seats in the Assembly, the TMC is confident of doing better than its op

Gold and rate hike fallout

|By Lawrence Williams| The initial reaction to the Fed’s first interest rate rise in nine years has been marginally positive for gold. Only time will tell if, on reflection by the market, its initial post-hike performance can be maintained, or improved upon.  It has already come down a little this morning trading in the mid to high $1060s after mid $1070s immediately post the announcement.  This fall from the […]

Zuma protests: Indian family in the eye of storm

As South Africans endure their deepest economic crisis since 2009, it’s not just President Jacob Zuma they blame. There’s a family whose name is increasingly the target of protest: the Guptas. As tens of thousands marched in October in South Africa’s biggest wave of nationwide anti-government protests since the African National Congress came to power, one poster, broadcast on the nation’s television channels, captured the public anger: […]

King dollar trend is down, but not out

|By Matein Khalid| The plunge in crude oil after OPEC’s Vienna conclave, Dr. Draghi’s failure to resist Bundesbank pressure not to fire another ECB easy money bazooka, Wall Street’s junk bond debacle and an imminent rise in the Fed Funds rate for the first time since 2006 will all shape the next big trades in Planet Forex. The Euro has risen to 1.10 on Draghi’s failure to […]

Apple Opens ‘Secret’ Lab To Develop iPhone Screens

Engineers at a “secret” Apple lab in Taiwan are reportedly working to develop innovative new screen technologies for iPhones and iPads, according to unnamed sources “with knowledge of the facility.” A Bloomberg report today said the lab, which began operating sometime this year, is focused on new ways to make device displays thinner and better. The lab is located in the Longtan District in northern Taiwan and […]

Oil crash impact to hit real estate investments

|By Arabian Post Staff| The fiscal restructuring across GCC, including the introduction of additional taxation, will have serious implications for real estate investments in these countries, according to real estate investment and advisory firm JLL. Fiscal restructuring is already evident in the form of budgetary cuts among GCC countries including the UAE. As governments become more cautious about their finances, there is a likelihood of cuts in […]

Islamic Crowdfunding: Way to go

|By Umar Munshi| Islamic Crowdfunding has the potential to help us change our world for the better. When an online community unites and pools resources, this community has the financial and social clout and capability to create and re-create multiple aspects of the world and directly impact society. Crowdfunding itself started and blossomed in the West initially amongst groups of like-minded individuals wanting to create something. In […]