December, 2016

• 26 December

  China to cut solar, wind power prices as project costs fall

    Bloomberg China is reducing the amount of money it pays to newly completed solar and wind power generators for their electricity, in order to reflect declines in construction costs, the country’s price regulator and economic planner said on Monday. The nation will cut tariffs paid to solar farms by as much as 19 percent in 2017 from this year’s ...

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• 26 December

  Algeria to rejuvenate aging oil wells

  

    RHOURD NOUSS / Reuters Algeria has launched a programme to rejuvenate its ageing oil and gas wells and boost production as part of efforts to address a crash in oil earnings, a senior Sonatrach manager told Reuters. Low prices have slashed the OPEC member’s energy earnings roughly in half, with revenues expected at about $35 billion in 2016 compared ...

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• 26 December

  Israel Oks ‘Facebook law’ against web incitement

  

    Bloomberg Israeli courts could demand that companies such as Facebook Inc. remove content deemed as incitement, under a bill that that will head for parliamentary approval amid concerns about free speech. The law would give Israel the tools “to have content liable to lead to murder and terror removed immediately,” Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said via text message ...

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• 26 December

  US resorts bet on ski industry

  

    DENVER / AP A budget ski resort in western Colorado came up with an eye-popping offer — a $700 lift ticket, the most expensive in the nation. Only this lift ticket comes with a sweet bonus: a pair of handcrafted skis made from Colorado wood. Gimmicky? Sure. But Sunlight Mountain Resort says that in an era of increasing ski-industry ...

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• 26 December

  Minnesota beats rest of country in banning germ-killer

  

    MINNEAPOLIS / AP Minnesota’s first-in-the nation ban on soaps containing the once ubiquitous germ-killer triclosan takes effect Jan. 1, but the people who spearheaded the law say it’s already having its desired effect on a national level. The federal government caught up to Minnesota’s 2014 decision with its own ban that takes effect in September 2017. Major manufacturers have ...

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• 26 December

  Houston reservoir gets an ‘artistic’ revamp

    HOUSTON / AP Houston’s first underground drinking water reservoir — a decades-old collection of more than 200 concrete columns inside a cavernous space near downtown — had been unused for years and was set for demolition when a nonprofit group reimagined it as something new: a public space. The 87,500-square-foot-space, dubbed the “Cistern” and reminiscent of ancient European water ...

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• 26 December

  Global shares mixed with Yen gaining in thin trade

  

    Reuters Global stocks were mixed on a day when many markets were closed for a holiday. Japanese shares fell as the yen gained against the dollar, while Chinese equities recovered from earlier losses. The Topix index slipped in Tokyo on trading volumes around 40 percent below the 30-day average. The Shanghai Composite Index erased a drop of as much ...

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• 26 December

  Saudi post-budget rally stalls

  

    Reuters The Saudi Arabian stock market’s post-budget rally ran out of steam on Monday as the index neared technical resistance, while United Arab Emirates bourses outperformed the region. The Saudi index added 1.5 percent on Sunday in reaction to Riyadh’s modestly expansionary state budget for 2017. But it closed 0.3 percent lower at 7,166 points on Monday in lower ...

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• 26 December

  Is Apple alienating Mac loyalists?

  

    Bloomberg To die-hard fans, Apple Inc.’s Macintosh sometimes seems like an afterthought these days. Mac upgrades, once a frequent ritual, are few and far between. The Mac Pro, Apple’s marquee computer, hasn’t been refreshed since 2013. The affordable and flexible Mac mini was last upgraded in 2014. And when a new machine does roll out, the results are sometimes ...

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• 26 December

  Italian eyewear firm Safilo moves into wearable tech

  

    Relaxnews Italian eyewear company Safilo has announced they are teaming up with Interaxon Inc. to create the first ever brain sensing eyewear, SafiloX. A world leader in sparse EEG (electroencephalography) brain sensing technology, Canadian firm Interaxon is known for its signature product, the Muse headband. A sensory headband that helps the wearer to relax and reduce stress through meditation, ...

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