Japan's women won the Uber Cup on Saturday, breezing past surprise finalists Thailand 3-0 in Bangkok to end a 37-year wait to regain the title.

With a team stacked with top ranked players in both the singles and doubles, Japan made light work of the host, which entered the final for the first time after stunning China in the semifinal.

It ends an Uber Cup drought for Japan that stretches back to 1981 and is a major confidence boost ahead of the Olympics which it will host in two years' time.

The Uber Cup is second in prestige only to the Olympics as a national team event.

World number two Akane Yamaguchi got Japan off to a flyer, dulling the boisterous partisan home crowd with a 21-15, 21-19 win over Ratchanok Intanon, blending deft touches at the net with patience in the rallies and power shots.

NEW DELHI:  BJP leaders Ganeshi Lal  and Kummanam Rajasekharan were today appointed as Governors of Odisha and Mizoram respectively.

According to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique, Prof. Ganeshi Lal will take over as the new governor of Odisha, a post which had fallen vacant in March this year after veteran Naga leader S C Jamir completed his tenure.

Bihar Governor Satya Pal Malik had been given additional charge of  Odisha.

Mr Lal is a former Haryana BJP chief.

"The President of India has been pleased to appoint Prof. Ganeshi Lal to be the Governor of Odisha with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office," the communique said.

In his second order, the President appointed Kerala BJP chief Kummanam Rajasekharan as the Governor of Mizoram.

He will be replacing Lt. General (Retd.) Nirbhay Sharma, who is completing his tenure on May 28, 2018.

The Caribbean island of Barbados has elected its first woman prime minister since gaining independence from Britain in 1966.

Mia Mottley led her Barbados Labour Party (BLP) to a crushing victory over the Democratic Labour Party (DLP).

Ms Mottley, a 52-year-old lawyer, is reported to have once told a teacher at her secondary school that she would become the country's first female PM.

The BLP won all 30 seats up for grabs in the House of Assembly.

The DLP has governed the popular tourist paradise for the past 10 years, most recently under Prime Minister Freundel Stuart.

A report from Alex Heath of Cheddar news service claims that Facebook is planning to launch its own cryptocurrency. The company is said to be focused on using the platform to make it easier to make payments.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina, will inaugurate the Bangladesh Bhavan within the campus on Friday. 

The Bangladesh Bhavan is a symbol of the cultural ties between the two countries.

The Bangladesh Bhavan features a museum that showcases Rabindranath Tagore's association with the country, the Liberation War of Bangladesh and Indo-Bangla relations.

It was built at a cost of Rs. 25 crore, which was provided by the Bangladesh government.

A fund of Rs. 10 crore would be given to help to maintain the museum premises.

Reportedly, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will also be signed between Visva-Bharati and the Secondary and Higher Secondary Division of the education ministry of Bangladesh.

Oil producers would have to part with any revenue they earn from prices crossing $70 per barrel; States may be asked to cut VAT

The government may levy a windfall tax on oil producers like Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC), as part of a permanent solution it is working on for moderating the spiralling retail prices of petrol and diesel.

The tax, which may come in the form of a cess, will kick in the moment oil prices cross $70 per barrel, sources privy to the development said.

Under the scheme, oil producers, who get paid international rates for the oil they produce from domestic fields, would have to part with any revenue they earn from prices crossing $70 per barrel mark.

Switching my iPhone’s Wi-Fi radio on and off is something I do by default when I move from one room to the next. I can’t stream HD content to my TV because my PC and NAS are upstairs while my TV is downstairs. I can’t stream games using Steam’s in-home streaming unless I’m using a device in the same room as my router (because that’s the only way I can stream a game at sufficient quality).

These are limitations that I’ve grown to expect from traditional Wi-Fi networks. Mesh networks are an option that I did consider, but laziness and a worry of unnecessary complications made me reconsider.

A recent chat with Rahul Patel, Qualcomm’s senior VP and general manager for Connectivity, convinced me that this is not a condition I need accept for long.

Patel pointed out that the next revolution is around content delivery, whether that happens via the internet or local streaming. He said that what consumers want today is content delivered wirelessly, at any time and anywhere. And it’s not just about content, the ongoing invasion of IoT devices into our lives has ensured that traditional Wi-Fi networks are saturated and pushed to their limits.

A solution that Patel was interested in discussing was something called Wi-Fi SON. SON stands for Self Organising Network. In essence, this is a network that takes care of itself, ie, no user intervention is required. In other words, we’re talking about an “intelligent” Wi-Fi network.

WASHINGTON — The United States has disinvited China from participating in a multinational naval exercise scheduled for this summer, further escalating tensions with Beijing that have spanned from trade to North Korea to the military.

The Pentagon cited China’s rapid military buildup on disputed islands in the South China Sea for withdrawing the invitation for Beijing to participate in the large-scale naval exercise known as Rim of the Pacific, or RimPac. Defense Department officials said on Wednesday that China’s decision to place surface-to-air missile systems and other offensive weaponry on the islands spurred the move.

NITI Aayog and ABB India have signed a statement of intent (SoI) to support the Indian government realise its ambitious vision of Make In India through advanced manufacturing technologies that incorporate the latest developments in robotics and artificial intelligence, said a statement.

NITI Aayog will work with ABB to prepare key sectors of the economy, such as the power and water utilities sector, industries like food as well as the heavy industries sector; and the transport (rail and metro) and infrastructure sectors for digitalization, the internet of things and artificial intelligence. The initiative also covers the fast-growing segment of electric mobility. Jointly, NITI Aayog and ABB will work with government ministries, solicit feedback for areas critical to them and discuss solutions using industrial automation, and digitalization technologies.