Bloomberg The Kingdom od Saudi Arabia seeks to establish itself as a trade hub connecting Europe, Africa and Asia. The causeway that is planned to link Saudi Arabia with Egypt will be a key component of future trade exchanges between the kingdom and Africa. In the Vision 2030 document that was released on April 25, Riyadh said it plans ...

  Bloomberg U.K. mortgage lending surged by the most since October 2007 last month, a further sign of the stampede for investment properties before a tax rise took effect in April. Net advances rose to 7.4 billion pounds ($10.8 billion) in March, from 3.6 billion pounds a month earlier, the Bank of England said in London. That’s far above the ...

  Bloomberg The nation’s housing markets may be finally getting over the foreclosure crisis, but for many Americans the anger hasn’t subsided. Take a look at this recent home sale in Florida. It may be the perfect encapsulation of the fury felt by some of the more than 5 million Americans served with a foreclosure notice after the housing bubble ...

  Tobias Hanraths/ DPA Here’s the good news: prices have plunged for decent computers that provide all you need for internet search, occasional email and letter writing and storage of music and photos. “Even the low-end computers are not underpowered when you compare them to the level of a decade ago,” says Hans Stahl, professor of computer science at the ...

  Relaxnews Just as for virtual reality, 2016 is expected to be a pivotal year for wearable technology, particularly smartwatches and fitness trackers. Statistical data puts global sales of fitness trackers and smartwatches at 51 million units for 2015 and forecasts that this figure will jump to 84 million —38 million fitness trackers and 46 million smartwatches — by the ...

  Washington/ AFP Samsung kept the top spot in a global smartphone market which showed signs of flattening in the first quarter of 2016, a survey showed. The recent report by research firm IDC said the worldwide smartphone market saw its slowest growth on record of 0.2 percent, with shipments totalling 334.9 million. South Korean giant Samsung maintained its lead ...

  AP Apple is edging its way a little further into health care with the release of new iPhone apps that patients can use to manage their own medical conditions — from diabetes to pregnancy and even depression. While there are hundreds of health-related apps on the market, Apple wants to put its stamp on a new ecosystem of treatment ...

  Relaxnews A Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Beijing has embraced technology and debuted a robot monk in a bid to attract new followers to the faith. The cartoon-like creation, dubbed Xian’er, wears a yellow robe and has a shaved head, and can recite mantras and answer 20 simple questions about Buddhism and the daily lifestyle at the Lonquan ...

  Relaxnews Consumers have officially fallen out of love with tablets and are having their heads turned by larger smartphones and more powerful 2-in-1 devices instead. Everyone laughed when Microsoft unveiled the first Surface Pro and claimed that the future was in touch screen PCs, not tablets. But the latest data from Strategy Analytics, published Thursday, shows that Microsoft was ...

  Sharjah / Emirates Business Bank of Sharjah has announced its financial results for the three months ended on March 31, 2016. During the period, the Bank of Sharjah continued to grow its loan book while maintaining the solid structure of the balance sheet, with high levels of both liquidity and capital. Total assets reached AED27,651 million, an increase of ...