China’s latest innovation? The ballpoint pen

  Last week, China announced that it had mastered the art of making ballpoint pens. Don’t laugh: It was a years-long effort that cost millions of dollars and required the leadership of a state-run corporate colossus. It was front-page news, widely discussed on talk shows and celebrated on social media. And it was no one-off stunt. China hopes such government-mandated ...

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European stocks pare drop as May says ‘Brexit deal will need vote’

  Bloomberg European stocks pared their decline on Tuesday after UK Prime Minister Theresa May laid out her intentions on Brexit while supporting a strong European Union. The Stoxx Europe 600 index dropped 0.1 percent at 12:37 p.m. in London, recovering from a 0.7 percent slide earlier, still held lower by declines in mining and automaker stocks. May ruled out ...

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Qatar stock market strong, Saudi recovers, Egypt extends bull run

  DUBAI / Reuters Qatar’s stock market rose to a multi-month high on Tuesday in the heaviest volume since late November, buoyed by the banking sector, while firmer oil prices supported the rest of the Gulf and foreign investors bought up Egyptian shares. Qatari Islamic bank Masraf Al Rayan jumped 4.0 percent to 40.45 riyals after its board recommended a ...

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MH370 families despair as search ends

  Bloomberg The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was called off on Tuesday after almost three years of fruitless toil. The Boeing Co. 777 aircraft disappeared on March 8, 2014, on its way to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board. According to satellite data, the jet headed south over the Indian Ocean for about six hours ...

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Delta adds diversity training for flight crews

  Bloomberg Delta Air Lines Inc. will begin diversity training for all of its flight crews after at least two widely publicized incidents where passengers said they were discriminated against or treated uncivilly on its flights. Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian banned a passenger for life in November after the man was videotaped yelling in support of Donald Trump. A ...

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Saudi Arabia’s new airline to fly leased Airbus A320s

  RIYADH / Reuters Saudi Arabian Airlines’ budget carrier Flyadeal will lease six Airbus A320s, an Airbus executive said, a sign that the European planemaker might again have pipped Boeing in the race to win a big Middle East deal. Flyadeal, which is set to start services in mid-2017, is aiming to operate a fleet of up to 50 narrow ...

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Flynas seeks IPO regulatory approval

  Bloomberg Saudi budget airline Flynas plans to seek regulatory approval this year for an initial public offering that would make it the first carrier to be listed on the country’s stock exchange, part of a broader effort to diversity the economy in the face of weak oil prices. The closely held carrier, which announced an deal for 80 Airbus ...

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Cups with a long history!

  Wittenberg / DPA You might have thought disposable cups were a modern invention, but in fact they’ve been around for hundreds of years – and back in the day they had a lot more style than today. Archaeologists at Wittenberg Castle in eastern Germany found layers of broken cups at a recent dig, which they believe were simply thrown ...

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Searching for shadowland

  Dusseldorf / DPA An empty, dimly lit railway station somewhere out in the suburbs, in the middle of the night. Safe or not? “It’s a classic example of a place that can make people feel anxious,” says Udo Diederich, who spent 41 years in the German police. Despite being retired he’s still keen to help people. The 61-year-old is ...

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LNG consumption to reach 422 million tonnes by 2013

  Bloomberg Liquefied natural gas prices falling to the lowest in a decade last year spurred fresh demand while suppressing investment in new production, potentially leading to shortages and price spikes next decade, according to a new Bloomberg New Energy Finance report. Global annual LNG consumption is seen rising to 422 million tons by 2030, almost two-thirds higher than last ...

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