world-news

Saffron may prevent blindness

05/18/2009:
The high priced golden culinary herb saffron, made from crocus flowers, and used in cooking, may hold one of the keys to preventing the loss of sight in old age and could even help improve vision in people suffering from certain blinding eye diseases. A team found that saffron slows the loss of sight becuase the herb has remarkable effects on the genes which actually regulate the performance of the eye’s key vision cells.

Obama girls name new puppy Bo

04/15/2009:
A 6 month old Portuguese water dog was selected by the Obama’s to be their first pet. President Barack Obama ‘s daughters, 10 year old Malia and 7 year old Sasha, named the black and white pup, Bo. The dog was a gift from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy who himself owns several Portuguese water dogs.

Abu Dhabi Investment Council Buys Chrysler Building

07/10/2008:
An Abu Dhabi Investment Council, based in Abu Dhabi has bought the Chrysler Building, New York’s best known skyscrapers, for 800 million dollars. The 77 story Art Deco skyscraper is located in Midtown Manhattan opposite Grand Central station. The The Chrysler Building was designed by the architect William Van Alen and built between 1928 and 1930. The building was declared a historic monument in 1976 and was built for the Chrysler car company. The fund has over 800 billion dollars of assets and has also recently made a 7.5 billion dollar investment in Citigroup. Many Middle East nations have great access to capital from their oil profit and hence are looking for real estate assets overseas. Just last month, General Motors building located on Fifth Avenue was bought by Investors from Dubai , Kuwait and Qatar for 2.8 billion dollars.

Continental Airlines Joins Star Alliance

06/20/2008:
The Star Alliance gets a new member. Continental Airlines will leave the SkyTeam alliance with Delta and Northwest and now be part of the Star Alliance along with world’s largest airlines like ANA, Singapore, Lufthansa, Thai, and United and others. This will able the airlines to coordinate schedules and pricing and sell seats on each other’s flights.

Vodafone iPhone In Ten New Countries

05/06/2008:
Vodafone announced that it has been selected to provide the Apple’s iPhone in ten new countries. The list of the countries are Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey. Vodafone will start to sell the Apple iPhone as early as later this year.

World under rice shortage?

04/23/2008:
World under rice shortage? The price for rice seems to be going up daily and now there are countries putting limits on exports and also local stores in the US putting limits on how much can be bought by an individual. As the world population and consumers of rice grows, the supply seems not to be keeping up with the rise in demand. Price of rice have gone up by more then 30 percent in the two years from 2005 to 2007. Of the world rice 80 percent is grown in Asia. Major exporters of rice are India, Pakistan, Thailand, Vietnam, and United States. Rice is being imported by Bangladesh, Brazil, Indonesia, Iraq, Philippines, and the Arab world.

Driver And Paparazzi Blamed For Diana Death

04/07/2008:
After 6 months of hearings and testimony from over 278 witnesses and 23 hours of jury deliberation, the jury found that the death of Princess Diana and her lover, Dodi al Fayed was caused by negligent driving of their chauffeur and photographers who pursued the couple speeding Mercedes into a Paris underpass.

Walt Disney To Invest In UTV Software Communications Ltd

02/19/2008:
Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia) Pte Ltd. (TWDC), a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, has announced intention to invest into UTV Software Communications Ltd. (UTV) and UTV Global Broadcasting Ltd. (UGBL). UGBL is the parent company for its two wholly owned subsidiaries, Genx Entertainment and UTV Entertainment Television Ltd.

Hotmail Sabeer Bhatia Launches SabSeBolo

01/22/2008:
Founder of Hotmail, Sabeer Bhatia, recently announced the launch of a new service within India called SabSeBolo.com . SabSeBolo.com will be India’s first free audio conferencing reservation system. In order to use the service, a user will log on to SabSebolo.com and enter your email id and password and in return will be given a permanent conference id and a pin. Then user call +91 223980 4444 and using the conference id and pin can start the conference.

Reliance Power Ltd IPO

01/04/2008:
Reliance Power Ltd (RPL) will be offering its initial public offering this month and which will be the largest by any Indian company to date. The IPO was announced by Chairman, Mr Anil Ambani. The IPO will raise as much as Rs 11,500 crore of capital with the issue opening on January 15 and closes January 18. RPL is a subsidiary of Reliance Energy Ltd (REL) and owns 50 percent stake in the company. Part of the raised captial will be used to build six power projects across India.