The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.

  Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co. will create an all-screen front for the Galaxy S8 smartphones coming out next year and scrap the physical home button, people with direct knowledge of the matter said. The bezel-less displays will provide more viewing real estate while a virtual home button will be buried in the glass in the lower section, the people said, ...

  San Francisco / AFP Smartwatch pioneer Pebble announced it was shutting down, with tech wearables giant Fitbit acquiring some of its assets including key personnel. “Due to various factors, Pebble is no longer able to operate as an independent entity. We have made the tough decision to shut down the company and no longer manufacture Pebble devices,” Pebble founder ...

  Sydney / AFP The hidden secrets of Egyptian mummies up to 3,000 years old have been virtually unwrapped and reconstructed for the first time using cutting-edge scanning technology in a joint British-Australian exhibition. Three-dimensional images of six mummies aged between 900BC and 140-180AD from ancient Egypt, which have been held at the British Museum but never physically unwrapped, give ...

  Tokyo / AFP A Japanese city has introduced a novel way to keep track of senior citizens with dementia who are prone to getting lost — tagging their fingers and toes with scan-able barcodes. A company in Iruma, north of Tokyo, developed tiny nail stickers, each of which carries a unique identity number to help concerned families find missing ...

  Paris / AFP The first wave of virtual reality cinemas, heralding what their creators claim will be an entertainment revolution, rolls out across the world this month. The first screening room in France opened and several others are promised for Beijing, Shanghai and Los Angeles in the next few weeks. Like the early days of cinema, virtual reality — ...

  ABU DHABI / WAM Shareholders in First Gulf Bank PJSC (FGB) and National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), have approved a proposed merger of the two banks, which will create the largest financial institution in the UAE with assets of approximately AED655 billion (US$178 billion). At separate general assembly meetings held on Wednesday, shareholders in FGB and NBAD voted ...

  ABU DHABI / WAM Fares Mohammed Al Mazrouei, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation for Security and Military Affairs, met on Wed-nesday, Mikhail Bogdanov, Russian President’s Special Representative for the Middle East and Africa and Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia. During the meeting, the duo discussed bilateral relations and ways to enhance them, as well as means ...

  DUBAI / WAM HH Sheikh Mansour bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai International Marine Club (DIMC) unveiled the first ‘Smart Lounge’ of the Dubai Department of Economic Development (DED) to strengthen customer service standards and to ensure round-the-clock access to DED’s business registration and licensing services. Dedicated user-friendly and interactive kiosks and smart devices are ...

  Saddha Batolni / AFP A Pakistani plane carrying 48 people crashed on Wednesday in the country’s mountainous north and burst into flames killing everyone on board, authorities said, in one of the deadliest aviation accidents in the country’s history. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Flight PK661 came down while travelling from the city of Chitral to Islamabad, the civil aviation ...

  Bangkok / AFP Thai authorities are investigating the BBC over a Thai-language profile of the nation’s new king, officials said on Wednesday, after the article outraged ultra-royalists in a country where criticism of the monarchy is outlawed. Thailand’s harsh royal defamation law has been used to jail scores of critics and spawned a culture of self-censorship across the media, academia ...