March, 2016

• 14 March

  Masdar Institute signs pact with IEA

  

  ABU DHABI / Emirates Business The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, an independent, research-driven graduate-level university focused on advanced energy and sustainable technologies, and the IEA Environmental Projects Ltd (IEA EPL) has announced they have signed a collaborative agreement for curbing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. With this agreement, Masdar Institute becomes the first individual institution from the Gulf Cooperation ...

  Read More »
• 14 March

  Maserati’s ‘art’ of centenary celebrations

  

  Sunaina Rana / Emirates Business Italian luxury car manufacturer Maserati is gearing up to mark its presence at Art Dubai —the leading inter¬national art fair in the MENA region and South Asia. Visitors at the event can behold a contemporary sculpture showcased by the brand at the event. The piece of art — ‘Neptune in the Wind’ — has been ...

  Read More »
• 14 March

  Thousands of Chinese coal miners protest over unpaid wages, layoffs

  

  Beijing / AFP Thousands of miners in China’s coal-rich northeast have gone on strike over months of unpaid wages, amid fears of mass layoffs as the government seeks to restructure lumbering state-owned industries. Social unrest is anathema to China’s Communist leaders, making the threat of worker discontent a disincentive to the hard choices analysts see as necessary to reform the ...

  Read More »
• 14 March

  Australian dollar hits 8-month high as commodity units rise

  Tokyo / AFP The Australian dollar hit an eight-month high Monday as commodity-linked currencies got a boost on the back of a rise in global equity markets, with investors focusing on a string of central bank meetings. The Aussie currency bought 75.94 US cents in afternoon Tokyo trading, its highest level since July, while the New Zealand and Canadian dollars ...

  Read More »
• 14 March

  Toyota to make wind-power hydrogen for fuel cells

  YOKOHAMA / AP Toyota Motor Corp. is responding to the main criticism of fuel cell cars, that making the hydrogen for the fuel is not clean, with plans to help make the hydrogen using wind power. Fuel cells are zero-emission, running on the power created when hydrogen combines with oxygen in the air to make water. But to have a ...

  Read More »
• 14 March

  Thailand, Vietnam spar over ‘Mekong’

  

  Luke Hunt / The Diplomat It’s hardly a secret that much of Southeast Asia is in drought, that Laos has bitterly upset its neighbours with its overly-ambitious dam construction plans, or that the once Western-backed Mekong River Commission (MRC) has been reduced to a shell of its former self. It’s a difficult situation, pushed along by a robust social debate ...

  Read More »
• 14 March

  Bangladesh slams ‘incompetent’ Central Bank post hack theft

  Dhaka / Bloomberg Bangladesh’s government lashed out at the central bank in a rare public split as tensions escalate after hackers stole about $101 million from its foreign reserves. Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith vowed to take action against Bangladesh Bank after it failed to inform the government immediately when the funds went missing from an account with the ...

  Read More »
• 14 March

  Thailand proposes US$53.78mn budget for cancer vaccine

  

  Bangkok / DPA The National Health Security Office (NHSO) has planned a budget of 1.89 billion baht (US$53.78 million) for vaccination purposes in the coming fiscal year. If the budget gets the green light, hundreds of thousand girls will get human papillomavirus vaccines (HPV) to boost their protection against cervical cancer, one of the nation’s major killers. “We have planned ...

  Read More »
• 14 March

  Osborne looks to Carney to do the heavy economic lifting

  

  Bloomberg Back in 2010, when U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne was kicking off his fiscal squeeze, he rarely tired of saying how his “credible’’ plans gave the Bank of England flexibility on policy. Six years later and the story hasn’t changed much. Cornered by his own pledge to post surpluses from 2020, Osborne must keep tightening the purse ...

  Read More »
• 14 March

  Euro-area industrial production surges most since 2009

  

  Bloomberg Industrial production in the euro area opened 2016 with its strongest monthly performance in more than six years, boosted by energy and capital goods. Output jumped 2.1 percent in January from December, helped by growth in Germany, France and Italy, the Eurostat statistics office in Luxembourg said on Monday. From a year earlier, production rose 2.8 percent, the biggest ...

  Read More »