Dubai / WAM Leading mobile satellite services operator Thuraya Telecommunications Company today launched a dedicated M2M service and terminal that is available across its extensive coverage area and for the first time over North America. The new Thuraya FT2225 Medium Data Rate (MDR) fixed terminal works on ViaSat’s mobile satellite services network, using ViaSat’s L-band high capacity satellite system. It ...

ABU DHABI / WAM On the directives of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, the Khalifa Foundation is continuing the campaign, “UAE Response to Syrian Families and Affected Lebanese,” estimated to number 100,000, in ...

Dhaka / AFP Bangladesh’s central bank chief resigned on Tuesday, after hackers stole $81 million from the nation’s foreign reserves in one of the biggest bank heists in history, the finance minister said. The audacious cyber-theft has embarrassed the government, triggered outrage in the impoverished country and raised alarm over the security of the country’s foreign exchange reserves of over ...

Bangkok / AFP Communist-ruled Laos must deepen reforms to maintain its rapid expansion, the IMF chief, Christine Lagarde said on Tuesday at the end of a rare visit to one of the world’s fastest growing economies. Resource-rich Laos has an annual growth rate of around 7.4 percent, but gains have not been evenly distributed and poverty remains widespread among its ...

New Delhi / Bloomberg India may shut two of its oldest reactors almost five decades after they went into operation as power tariffs aren’t keeping pace with maintenance costs, according to Sekhar Basu, secretary at the Department of Atomic Energy. The first two reactors at Tarapur, about 100 kilometers from Mumbai at India’s western coast, suffer frequent maintenance shutdowns that ...

Beijing / Bloomberg China plans to set up a commercial rocket-launch company in view of the market’s potential, the official Xinhua news agency reported. China Sanjiang Space Group Co. is preparing to enter the commercial-rocket business with a launch slated for 2017, Xinhua reported Tuesday, citing the company’s chief engineer Hu Shengyun. Some Internet companies have expressed interest in collaborating ...

Beijing / AP A Chinese company says it will resume construction work on a $1.5 billion port city project that was suspended for one year due to questions over environmental impact. CHEC Port City Colombo issued a statement Tuesday welcoming the Sri Lankan government’s decision to allow the project to resume. It said a supplementary environmental impact study was done ...

Manila / DPA The central banks of the Philippines and Malaysia have agreed to allow up to three so-called Qualified Asean Banks (QABs) from each country to operate in the other. In a statement, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. had signed a heads of agreement (HOA) with Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) Governor Zeti ...

New Delhi / Bloomberg India’s technology services sector is hiring more women but females still assume just a fraction of senior roles, according to a joint study by the industry’s trade group and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. About 51 percent of entry-level jobs went to women in 2015, according to the report on an industry dominated by companies like Infosys Ltd. and ...

Sydney / AFP Australian logistics giant Asciano said on Tuesday it was recommending a $6.8 billion takeover deal between two rival local and international suitors, breaking up the company’s ports and rail assets. The announcement ended a bidding war for Asciano, a major Australian rail, freight and ports operator, between a consortium led by Canada’s Brookfield Infrastructure Group and a ...