The final farewell in king of Bhumibal

The funeral for Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej is an elaborate, intricately planned event lasting five days. Here are some facts about the events

The spectacular send-off for Thailand’s late King Bhumibol Adulyadej began Thursday with an elaborate collage of Buddhist rituals and palace protocol, ahead of his cremation at the gilded pyre erected in Bangkok’s historic heart.

The US$90 million ceremony is a final act of devotion to the “father” of the nation, who died last year aged 88.

Here are a few things to know about the funeral of a king revered as a demi-god, and who reigned for seven decades.

The latest structure in china's communist party central committee

China’s ruling Communist Party on Tuesday announced a new Central Committee, the largest of its elite ruling bodies, at the closing session of the 19th Communist Party Congress, a course-setting leadership reshuffle held every five years.

The list provides clues to who will, or won’t, fill top Party positions during President Xi Jinping’s second term. The party will announce its new Politburo Standing Committee, which now includes seven members headed by Xi and is the apex of power in China. It is selected by the new Central Committee, around midday (0400 GMT) on Wednesday.

Here are noteworthy names:

Wang Qishan, 69, the anti-corruption tsar and current Standing Committee member, is not on the new Central Committee, ending months of speculation whether he would remain for another term and break an unofficial retirement rule of not taking a new position after age 68.

Wang may still get a leadership role outside the Standing Committee, sources told Reuters prior to congress.

Qatar Airways Wins Business Traveller Awards 2017

Qatar Airways is pleased   to announce that it has been named ‘Best Airline’ at the highly respected 2017 Business Traveller Awards, held recently at London’s Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington.

In addition to being voted ‘Best Airline ‘by travelers from around the world ,Qatar’s national carrier also won a raft of other major awards at the Middle East’ ‘Best Business class’ and ‘Best Long Haul Airline’.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said; I am extremely proud that Qatar Airways has been recognized in these four award categories.to be voted ‘Best Airline,’Best Middle Eastern Airline,’ best Long Haul Airline, ‘and ‘best business Class’ by the readers of Business Traveller magazine is a significant testimony of our passengers’ trust in what we stand for, placing them first at every stage of a journey”.

For the first time in Sri Lanka: Sampath Bank is Introduced Banking Facilities for Robotics

Robotics enabled by artificial intelligence and machine learning is proving to be a game changer that will bring unique operational efficiencies to the financial service industry, worldwide.

In Sri Lanka, continuing with their trend of pioneering innovative digital banking solutions, Sampath Bank is poised to revolutionize the financial industry with a banking robot that works in the form of a humanoid teller.

A never before in Sri Lanka phenomenon, the robot uses artificial intelligence to understand customers’ requests and performs transactions. It detects the presence of a customer and automatically initiates a conversation.

Currently the humanoid teller can speak and understand English and can perform seven functions; cash withdrawals, account balances, exchange rates, interest rates, details of loans & credit cards and information on how to open an account.

Einstein: theory of happy living sells 1.18 Million pounds

Physicist penned the advice, in lieu of a tip, for a courier, during a 1922 lecture tour in Tokyo. Now his note is up for auction

A note that Albert Einstein gave to a courier in Tokyo, briefly describing his theory on happy living, has surfaced after 95 years, and is up for auction in Jerusalem.

The year was 1922, and the German-born physicist, most famous for his theory of relativity, was on a lecture tour in Japan.

He had recently been informed that he was to receive the Nobel Prize for physics, and his fame outside of scientific circles was growing.

A Japanese courier arrived at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo to deliver Einstein a message. The courier either refused to accept a tip, in line with local practice, or Einstein had no small change available.

Either way, Einstein didn’t want the messenger to leave empty-handed, so he wrote him two notes by hand in German, according to the seller, a relative of the messenger.

USA: JFK, Assassinations info.

A treasure trove of documents related to the assassination of former president John F. Kennedy will be released Thursday. If recent polls are any indicator, it's doubtful whether there is any information in the documents that will put to bed the plethora of JFK conspiracies.

According to a poll by FiveThirtyEight.com this month, only 33 percent of Americans believe Kennedy was killed by a single person when he was assassinated in Dallas in November 1963. The official sequence of events as established by a commission headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren is that Kennedy was shot and killed with two bullets by Lee Harvey Oswald, who acted alone.

Fifty years later, however, most people are skeptical of the Warren Commission. In the survey, 61 percent of Americans believe in a conspiracy in which more than one person was involved in shooting the president.

JAPAN: Abe a big win

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday that the ruling bloc’s overwhelming victory in Sunday’s general election represented a “historic” level of public confidence in his leadership and that he will take the result as a powerful endorsement of his pet policies, including revising the pacifist Constitution.

With Sunday’s victory, Abe silenced doubts about his leadership ahead of imminent meetings with world leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump next month. Taking this into account, Abe announced his intention to seek re-election as prime minister at the Diet, possibly as soon as Nov. 1, when a special Diet session is reportedly set to be convened, and then “swiftly launch a new Cabinet.”
“I am very grateful that the Japanese public has powerfully encouraged us to move forward with our politics based on the solid foundation of our leadership,” Abe told a packed news conference at the headquarters of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Sperm whale has the largest brain on Earth

Cetaceans — whales and dolphins — are among the brainiest of beings. In terms of sheer brain size, the sperm whale is top on Earth, with a brain six times larger than that of a human being.

And now, scientists have identified key differences among cetaceans linked to brain size.

A study of 90 cetacean species published on Monday found that those with larger brains exhibit greater complexity in social structures as well as behaviours, with species like the killer whale and sperm whale leading the way.

“Dolphin and whale societies are at least as complex as what we have observed in primates,” said evolutionary biologist Susanne Shultz of the University of Manchester in Britain.

CIA director said: North Korea is ready to produce nuclear weapons

 CIA Director Mike Pompeo  has said North Korea  is months away from perfecting its nuclear weapons capabilities. 

 They are close enough now in their capabilities that from a US policy perspective we ought to behave as if we are on the cusp of them achieving” their objective of being able to strike the  United States ,  Pompeo told a national security forum in Washington. 

But he said there's a difference between having the ability to fire a single nuclear missile and the capability of producing large amounts of fissile material and developing an arsenal of such weapons.

Apple, Inc. (AAPL) Reportedly Cutting iPhone 8 Orders

Investors are trying to piece together the complicated iPhone puzzle

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) stock traded lower on Thursday after reports out of Taiwan claim the company has reduced its November and December iPhone 8 orders from suppliers by roughly 50 percent.

A report in Taiwan's Economic Times newspaper cites an unnamed supplier source claiming that Apple has cut its iPhone 8 demand in half.

While the report may seem alarming, a handful of Wall Street analysts have said the news, if true, may not be a crushing blow for Apple investors. The current iPhone cycle is far from the typical cycle. In addition to the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, Apple will be launching the 10-year anniversary iPhone X model on Nov. 3.

Apple does not officially update iPhone sales, but Rosenblatt Securities analyst Jun Zhang says iPhone 8 production cuts may be a sign Apple is anticipating robust iPhone Xdemand, which could be good news for average sales price and margins.

Modi says in Kedarnath temple: Pledge to devote myself for a ‘developed India’ by 2022

After spending Diwali with Army and BSF personnel in North Kashmir’s Gurez sector on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew to Uttarakhand’s Kedarnath temple Friday morning before it closes ahead of the winter. The Himalayan shrine, dedicated to Shiva, closes Saturday for as long as six months.  Modi had paid a visit to the temple on May 3 as well .

After offering prayers at the temple, Modi addressed a public gathering where he said the central government is taking steps to ensure that resources of the mountains are pooled in for development of only the mountains. “Reconstruction of Kedarpuri, with improved facilities for devotees, will be expensive but there will be no dearth of funds.”