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 ...

  Sunaina Rana / Emirates Business UAE-based automobile company, Swaidan Trading, also the exclusive distributor for Peugeot, has announced a new addition to its passenger vehicle portfolio of HAVAL SUVs. The automotive company has opened an exclusive HAVAL showroom on Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai. Ajit Kumar, CEO of Swaidan Trading, told Emirates Business, “At Swaidan Trading, we are looking at ...

  Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Organisers of Cityscape Abu Dhabi have reported that more than 15,000 visitors attended the three-day real estate showcase, which saw numerous property development launches, hundreds of units sold and a record turnout at the Cityscape Abu Dhabi Conference. The exhibition, held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business The World Bank Group’s Migration and Development April 2016 Report has positioned the GCC as a global hub of outward remittances, particularly to non-GCC Arab countries. The report, which highlights the movement of people as well as remittance flows, presents data that dovetails with internal research of UAE Exchange, the leading global remittance, foreign exchange ...

  Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, has announced a comprehensive new global agreement with WME | IMG to become a major long-term partner to the fashion industry by supporting 17 fashion week events around the world annually. Under the agreement, which is the first multinational, multi-year airline sponsorship supporting the fashion industry, ...

  Bloomberg Following complaints from retailers, MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc. have introduced software that they say will speed up slow check-out times for shoppers with new chip-based cards. With the new software, the checkout experience for owners of the security-enhanced chip cards should come closer to those with the old magnetic stripes, the companies say. Consumers will be able ...

  Paris / AFP Delta ordered 37 of Airbus’ medium-haul A321 aircraft with a catalogue price $4.2 billion (3.7 billion euros) as the US airline seeks to quickly retire older planes. “The order for the A321s is an opportunistic fleet move that enables us to produce strong returns and cost-effectively accelerate the retirement of Delta’s 116 MD-88s in a capital ...

  Bloomberg Restaurant Group Plc shares plunged in London after the UK owner of Frankie & Benny’s eateries forecast another hit to profits amid deteriorating sales. The stock fell as much as 25 percent to 282.1 pence, the lowest in almost four years. It was down 23 percent at 10:52 a.m., extending its drop this year to 58 percent. After ...