News related to
watch

A wearable technology developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University may one day make touchscreens for smart watches unnecessary as users could issue commands to their devices simply by touching their own arms. The new technology would essentially transform a user’s entire lower arm into a touchpad, capable of receiving commands traced on the skin. The system, called SkinTrack, was developed by Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute’s […]

|By Matein Khalid| Habib Bank Ltd is one of the Pakistan’s oldest, biggest retail/corporate banks, privatized last year with a 51% controlling stake held by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development. Its recent price fall from 240 to 172 rupees (PKR, not INR!) is a compelling opportunity to own an undervalued, well managed proxy for consumption and credit offtake in a 190 million population country now […]

By TIM ARANGO April 25, 2016 BAGHDAD — Iraqi forces, backed by American airstrikes and advised by American officers, have been making strides in Anbar Province, slowly taking back territory from the Islamic State. But in Falluja, a city in Sunni-dominated Anbar that has been in the hands of the Islamic State longer than any other in Iraq or Syria, civilians are starving as the Iraqi Army and militias […]

Saudi Arabia’s plan for the post-hydrocarbon era will have to overcome habits developed over decades of relying on crude sales to fuel economic growth, create job and build infrastructure. Almost eight decades after oil was first found in the country, officials are set to unveil Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s “Vision for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” on Monday, a blueprint seeking to reduce the reliance […]

A lot of factors go into helping Facebook determine which News Feed items appear first on a user’s page. This week, the company has added new considerations to ensure it delivers interesting content that’s geared specifically to each user. One of the new factors being added to the News Feed algorithm is time spent viewing an item. Facebook figures that the longer a user reads or views […]

Details are pictured on the backside of an Apple Iphone 6 on a table in a restaurant in Hanau, Germany, April 10, 2016. Reuters/Kai Pfaffenbach NEW YORK The U.S. Justice Department on Friday dropped its effort to force Apple Inc (AAPL.O) to help unlock an iPhone in a drug case in New York after someone provided authorities the passcode to access the device. In a letter filed […]

|By Arabian Post Staff| Diamonds are losing their allure and prices are dropping below the levels that prevailed a decade ago.  And diamond’s loss is mostly the gain of vacations, fancy handbags and high-tech gadgets. Diamonds are now cheaper than they were in 2006, says a Bloomberg report quoting data from PolishedPrices.com. Over the same period, the price of luxury items like cars, shoes and fine foods […]

Advertisements

A globe-trotting American investment banker who’s built a career on deals with Russia and its state-run gas company, Carter Page says his business has suffered directly from the U.S. economic sanctions imposed after Russia’s escalating involvement in the Ukraine. When Donald Trump named him last week as one of his foreign-policy advisers, Page says his e-mail inbox filled up with positive notes from Russian contacts. “So many people who I know and […]

|By Lawrie Williams| As we come up to the Easter holiday and trading gets thin, the opportunities for traders to manipulate precious metals prices up or down become easier and for the moment, those who would like to see prices lower are in the ascendant.  Whether gold goes into freefall and loses all its gains achieved so far this year is the big question on gold investors’ lips.  […]

|By Rani Molla & Andrea Felsted| You’d have thought negative interest rates would fuel a boom in diamonds, antiques and fine wine, as people look for an alternative to stuffing cash under the mattress. But you’d be wrong: prices for all three are falling. While some “collectibles” such as vintage watches, luxury handbags and old cars are holding up pretty well, others are struggling. The phenomenon of safe havens […]

|By K Raveendran| With the VAT announcement already having been made, the next landmark decision business circles are keenly watching out for is the establishment of the UAE Federal Tax Authority. The new authority or department is expected to be entrusted with the task of implementing and collecting various taxes, including the proposed corporate taxes. In June last year, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) had outlined in […]

Verizon Wireless last week started pitching an alternative to T-Mobile’s Binge On free mobile streaming service. But how does go90 stack up against the competition? Go90 (pictured above) is Verizon Wireless’ all-in-one mobile entertainment app. It offers live sports, live music, original shows and popular TV episodes — 21,000 titles to be exact. The service also boasts 50 exclusive original series on its roster. The United States’ […]

A general view shows the building ‘Gorod Stolits’ (Capital City) (C), which houses an office of 25 Floor Film Company, at the Moscow International Business Center also known as ”Moskva-City”, in Moscow, Russia, February 3, 2016. Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev WASHINGTON Russian authorities in November raided offices associated with a Moscow film distribution and production company as part of a crackdown on one of the world’s most notorious financial […]

Symantec is the king of tech security. Yet the Norton antivirus software maker just took a $500 million strategic investment from Silver Lake Partners, a firm known for making technology investments in companies like Dell. The question is why? Why exactly would the king of tech security need such a massive amount of cash from an outside investor? Has something gone wrong inside the company’s software machine? […]

On the seventh floor of a Doha tower block, in a room filled with display cases containing old coins, clocks and Koranic manuscripts, 82-year-old Hussain Alfardan sits fingering a pearl necklace he says is worth $2 million. “These pearls are yakka, the highest grade of natural pearl – each piece is rare. Today the pearl is the number one stone in the world. The most expensive stone, […]

By SHUAIB ALMOSAWA and KAREEM FAHIM February 3, 2016 SANA, Yemen — An airstrike by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia hit a cement factory north of Sana, Yemen’s capital, on Wednesday evening, killing at least 15 people, including civilian workers in nearby businesses, according to local security and medical officials. The bombing of the factory, in Amran Province, came days after Saudi officials pledged to form a high-level committee […]

|By Matein Khalid| The collapse in Brent crude oil below $30, a 20% fall in the Tadawul share index in January 2016’s global equity bloodbath, the cut in fuel subsidies and geopolitical risk escalation in the Middle East has spawned speculation in financial markets that Saudi Arabia will devalue the kingdom’s riyal, now pegged at 3.75 against the US dollar. Senior princes of the royal family and […]

Has the mighty iPhone reached its selling peak? If good sales, as opposed to outrageously great sales, are any indication, that could be. Apple said on Tuesday that it sold 74.8 million iPhones during its fiscal first quarter, which ended December 26. That marks the slowest quarter of growth since the company began selling the smartphones in 2007. In the same period in 2014, Apple sold 74.5 […]

ENERGY-HUNGRY BANGLADESH SAW DECADES-LONG WAIT

 

By Ashis Biswas

 

KOLKATA: Diplomacy may have won the day for Russia more than financial/technological reasons, in bagging the order to build two nuclear power generating stations in Bangladesh by 2022-23.

 

This would enable Bangladesh to become the third country in South Asia to generate nuke power, after India and Pakistan. However, Sri Lanka could join the list soon according to present indications.

 

A proposal to build nuclear power plants in East Pakistan had been put forward as early as 1961 and approved in 1963, according to open source information. Therefore, neither Awami League (AL) leader Sheikh Hasina, nor Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Khaleda Zia, can be rightfully accused of harbouring illusions of grandeur in going nuclear. Bangladesh has pledged to observe non-proliferati

The North American International Auto Show concluded in Detroit, Michigan today. As of Thursday, over 515,000 people had attended, including President Barack Obama. Thursday’s tally represented an increase of 7,000 when compared to the same period a year ago. During opening weekend, over 208,000 people came through the Cobo Center in downtown, Detroit. Over 700 vehicles were on display at NAIAS while 57 debuted during Press Preview. […]

As the chattering chieftains of the global economy gather this week in Davos, Switzerland, they’re facing the darkest outlook since the financial crisis tipped the world into recession seven years ago. The Chinese slowdown and accompanying slide in the yuan are imperiling already sluggish international growth, oil is trading at its lowest level in more than a decade, stocks have suffered their worst January ever, and the […]

|By Arabian Post Staff| Decreasing Saudi Arabia’s reliance on oil revenues could include the introduction of VAT and so-called sin taxes, observers say. Other issues under consideration include the partial privatization of selected state assets – including Saudi Aramco – and better utilization of state-owned real estate. The Kingdom has been successfully diversifying its economy over the past decade, with non-oil revenues increasing by 29 percent this […]

Iran’s release from sanctions testifies to its new relationship with the United States as it moves from pariah state to regional power, a status that could come at the cost of Saudi Arabia, Washington’s chief Arab ally. Enemies and allies alike must adjust to Iran becoming an uninhibited power broker in the Middle East after its nuclear deal with world powers and Saturday’s lifting of sanctions that […]

|By Matein Khalid| This was the ghastliest week for global risk assets since September 2011. Not even 290,000 new US jobs in December could negate the raw fear on Wall Street generated by the 10% fall in Shanghai, a yuan depreciation, market meltdowns of 6 – 7% in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Mumbai and New York. Four months ago, I had published a KT article titled “History’s […]

VISHNU RAJA
RYO YAMADA
HITORI GOTOH
IKUYO KITA