Samsung set to launch new flagship smartphones

Visitors try out Samsung Electronics’ VR at its booth near the Medal Plaza in Pyeongchang. (Reuters)
Updated 21 February 2018
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Samsung set to launch new flagship smartphones

SEOUL: Samsung Electronics will unveil its next flagship smartphones — the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ — on Sunday, after it reported record profits in recent weeks and its vice chairman was released from prison.
Samsung, the flagship subsidiary of South Korea’s biggest business group, suffered a humiliating recall of its Galaxy Note 7 device in 2016, and was then embroiled in the sprawling corruption scandal that brought down ousted president Park Guen-hye.
But its Galaxy S8 smartphone was a consumer and critical success and financially it has gone from strength to strength.
It enjoyed net profit of more than 42 trillion won ($39 billion) last year, and this month Lee Jae-yong, heir to the founding family, was released from prison after most of his bribery convictions were quashed on appeal.
Its latest phones will be launched at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, with teasers suggesting the major changes will be to the camera.
Visually they will resemble their predecessors but with a slightly smaller bottom bezel, a spate of leaks suggest.
Both Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ have upgraded cameras with variable apertures capable of shooting up to 960 frames per second for “super slow-motion” videos, according to tech website WinFuture, and stereo speakers.
Samsung has also revamped the series’ internals with faster processors, it added, and their batteries — the issue at the heart of the Galaxy Note 7 debacle — can last a full working day.

- AFP


India seals $3bn LNG agreement with UAE

Updated 19 January 2026
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India seals $3bn LNG agreement with UAE

  • Leaders hold talks to strengthen trade, defense ties

NEW DELHI, DUBAI: India signed a $3 billion deal on Monday to buy liquefied natural gas from the UAE, making it the Gulf country’s top customer, as the leaders of both countries held talks to strengthen trade and defense ties.

The agreement was signed during a very brief two-hour visit to ‌India by UAE ‌President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan for talks with Indian ‌Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

They pledged to double bilateral trade to $200 billion in six years and form a strategic defense partnership.

Abu Dhabi state firm ADNOC Gas will supply 0.5 million tonnes of LNG a year to India’s Hindustan Petroleum Corp. for 10 years, the companies said.

ADNOC Gas said the agreement brings the total value of its contracts with India to over $20 billion.

“India is now the UAE’s largest customer and a ‌very important part of ADNOC Gas’ LNG strategy,” ‍the company said.

The UAE is ‍India’s third largest trading partner and Sheikh Mohammed was accompanied ‍by a government delegation that included his defense and foreign ministers. The two sides signed a letter of intent to work toward forming a strategic defense partnership, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told reporters.

Misri, however, said that the signing of the letter of intent with the UAE does not mean that India will get involved in regional conflicts.

“Our involvement on the defense and security front with a country from the region does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that we will get involved in ‌particular ways in the conflicts of the region,” he said.