Australia and China: All About ‘optimism’ for PM Turnbull

  Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was in China Thursday and Friday for a fly-by visit that lasted just over 36 hours. Nonetheless, it was an important trip – as Turnbull’s first visit to China since assuming office last fall, it was important to set the tone for the Australia-China relationship under his administration. And that tone was relentlessly upbeat, ...

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The human cost of China’s manufacturing slowdown

Matthew Sedacca SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS Lowering his voice nervously, Yang Kechao confessed that over half of his workers at Huaxinyuan Steel Company are on vacation. The employees did not leave the factory owner with stations half-filled to go bask in the warm weather of Hejin, Shanxi, a North China province where the plant is based. Nor did they head ...

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Is Laos’ ASEAN chairmanship a threat to Southeast Asian regionalism?

  Laos is a country that is usually described in accordance with one of two narratives. The first portrays a Buddhist Shangri-La — the ‘real,’ ‘hidden,’ and ‘untouched’ Indochina dreamed of in Western backpacker fantasies — while the second depicts a highly impoverished country in desperate need of foreign aid and technical assistance. Both depictions have some merit. Laos is ...

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The 10 best VR experiences

  Relaxnews After spending time with the recently released consumer editions of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive virtual re.ality systems, here are the 10 best VR titles out now: Adr1ft If the film “Gravity” was a video game, it would be “Adr1ft.” The weightless saga for Oculus casts players as an astronaut struggling to survive while exploring a shattered ...

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GoPro teams with developers to spur camera sales

  AFP GoPro has announced it is teaming up with outside developers to make it easy to use the company’s mini cameras with apps or synch them with other devices. The effort to make GoPro products more versatile and, ideally, more tempting to buyers was revealed a day after the California-based company announced that it hired away an Apple veteran ...

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The wild side of technology

  Protecting nature? There are apps for that AFP Apple set out to inspire people to protect nature with a special collection of apps whose proceeds will go toward doing just that. The technology powerhouse behind the iPhone and the iPad worked with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and developers from around the globe to launch Apps for Earth at ...

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Roll up for LG’s new mobile keyboard

  Relaxnews The Rolly Keyboard 2, has unveiled, offers the productivity-conscious access to a full-size keyboard with five rows of keys that can connect wirelessly to a phone or tablet. The new accessory is powered by a single, replaceable AAA-size battery and when it’s not in use rolls up (hence the name) into a hexagonal shape. LG is by no ...

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Facebook pushes Internet to more corners of the world

AFP Facebook ramped up its challenge to Twitter-owned Periscope with upgrades to the social network’s live video broadcasting feature. After taking to the air with drones to provide Internet to remote spots, Facebook has unveiled new land-based systems to provide connectivity to people in urban settings. “We are really going at this problem from every possible angle,” Facebook co-founder and ...

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Gabon wants to rejoin OPEC oil group

  REUTERS The African nation of Gabon wants to rejoin OPEC after more than two decades, two OPEC sources said, becoming the second former member in a year to seek a return to the oil exporters’ group just as it is taking the first steps in years to prop up prices. If it returned, Gabon would be the smallest producer ...

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US urges Russia to halt Assad Aleppo attack as truce frays

Bloomberg The US is urging Russia to help halt an offensive by President Bashar Al Assad’s forces on rebel-held Aleppo, once the most populous city in Syria, warning that it’s putting an almost seven-week cease-fire under increasing strain. The Obama administration expressed its strong concerns to Russia, which committed to not participate in any attacks on groups which are adhering ...

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