LOS ANGELES / AP Cars with no steering wheel, no pedals and nobody at all inside could be driving themselves on California roads by the end of the year, under proposed state rules that would give a powerful boost to the fast-developing technology. For the past several years, tech companies and automakers have been testing self-driving car prototypes in ...

  Bloomberg Kuka AG, the German robot maker acquired last year by Midea Group Co. of China, needs to lower costs and win government recognition as a local brand to achieve its goal of becoming the No. 1 supplier in the Chinese market, according to an executive. “Kuka has a reputation for reliability, but as you know, as a German ...

  Bloomberg Jeff Regan was born with underdeveloped optic nerves and had spent most of his life in a blur. Then four years ago, he donned an unwieldy headset made by a Toronto company called eSight. Suddenly, Regan could read a newspaper while eating breakfast and make out the faces of his co-workers from across the room. He’s been able ...

  AP Dalia Rhodes’ wedding dress went down the aisle twice: Once at her wedding in 2015, and again a year later after she sold her gown to a stranger online. “I just wanted someone else to enjoy a pretty dress,” says Rhodes, who used the website Once Wed to sell it for $800, about half of what she originally ...

  Bloomberg Oil capped the biggest weekly loss since November after surging US supplies erased three months of gains that followed OPEC’s deal to cut output. Futures tumbled 9.1 percent this week in New York. For a second day, they closed below the settlement on November 29, the day before OPEC agreed to the curbs. US crude stockpiles have expanded ...

  Dubai / WAM The Dubai Investment Development Agency (Dubai FDI), an agency of the Department of Economic Development (DED), along with Dubai Exports, the export promotion agency of DED, will go on a two-week tour of the United States (US), as part of strengthening the emirate’s engagement with major economies to reinvigorate global trade flows and foreign investment. The ...

  DUBAI / WAM The 2nd Arab IPO Summit will focus primarily on how the companies in the region can increase their capital and enhance their financial value through IPOs. Discussions from leading issuers, stock exchanges, investment banks and corporates will highlight key macroeconomic developments and their impact on markets. The Arab IPO Summit, to be held on March 14-15 ...

  SHARJAH / WAM Sheikh Khalid bin Abdullah bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Chairman of the Hamriyah Free Zone Authority, inaugurated the plant of Petroleum Specialities (FZE), a specialised manufacturer of industrial white oils, in the Hamriyah Free Zone. The new plant is the first completely-owned subsidiary of its parent company, Apar Industries Limited, outside India. The opening ceremony was attended ...

  Dubai / WAM Expo 2020 Dubai’s successful apprenticeship programme is being integrated with a corresponding scheme at Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) to give young Emiratis a greater chance of taking a positive first step on the career ladder. The Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, will absorb the tried and tested structure and content of Expo 2020 Dubai’s programme into the ...

  Dubai / WAM The increasingly popular hobby of birdwatching received a major boost in the Arabic-speaking countries with the launch at the Emirates Literature Festival in Dubai of the Arabic version of the standard guidebook, ‘The Birds of the Middle East.’ The English edition, by British-based Richard Porter, the Middle East Adviser to the international conservation organisation BirdLife International, and ...