By Gopal Sharma | KATHMANDU KATHMANDU Nepal has forced 2,500 old vehicles off roads in its capital city of Kathmandu, part of a fight against alarming air pollution levels that have hit nine times World Health Organisation (WHO) limits. Air pollution has been a chronic problem in rapidly growing Kathmandu, which sits in a Himalayan valley and is home to more than three million people. Rising public […]
OSLO Norway has not violated the human rights of mass killer Anders Behring Breivik despite his charges of abuse since he was jailed for massacring 77 people in 2011, an appeals court ruled on Wednesday. The Borgarting appeals court overturned a 2016 verdict by a lower Oslo court that Breivik’s near-isolation in a three-room cell amounted to “inhuman and degrading treatment” under the European Convention on Human […]
Snapchat is displayed on a smartphone on September 27, 2016 in Berlin, GermanyImage: Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images By Kerry Flynn2017-03-01 06:19:41 UTC Snap Inc. has been playing with drones. The New York Times reported Tuesday that the company has worked on building its own drones, citing three people “briefed on the project who asked to remain anonymous because the details are confidential.” The piece doesn’t get […]
Shortly after breaking the Panama Papers, an international exclusive that shed light on illegal offshore banking around the globe, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists should have been riding high. Instead, the scrappy cross-border investigative team was facing the dreary prospect of laying staffers off due to a financial squeeze at its parent organization, the Center for Public Integrity. “I did feel a little deflated,” said Gerard […]
· The 50 million man-hours spans three years, during which McDermott has installed over 80,000 tonnes of steel and laid over 200 km of pipeline 01 March 2017 Dubai – Leading EPCI contractor McDermott International, Inc. (NYSE:MDR), today announced it reached 50 million man-hours without a lost time incident in its Middle East Area. “Everyone at McDermott had a part to play in reaching the 50 million man-hour […]
Snap Inc, owner of popular messaging app Snapchat, will price its initial public offering after the U.S. stock market closes on Wednesday in the most eagerly awaited technology IPO since Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba went public in 2014. The pricing will be the first test of investor appetite for a social-media app beloved by teenagers and 20-somethings but which has yet to turn a profit. The company’s […]
Researchers have developed a method to quantify ecosystem services of street trees. Using nearly 100,000 images from Google Street View, the study helps further understanding on how green spaces contribute to urban sustainability. (via WSJ)
By Letitia Stein | CLEARWATER, Fla. CLEARWATER, Fla. While U.S. President Donald Trump tried to win over skeptics in Congress on Tuesday, he never had to worry about losing the faithful at the Quaker Steak and Lube. About two dozen fans of the 45th president gathered at the bar and restaurant in Clearwater, Florida, still committed to Trump despite the tumult of his first 40 days in […]
TUNIS A Tunisian investigative judge has charged six security guards with failing to help tourists under attack during a 2015 massacre at a beach resort claimed by Islamic State, a counter-terrorism official said on Tuesday. The details were revealed after a British inquiry on Tuesday found Tunisian security forces had let down the victims of the 2015 beach hotel shooting, making “deliberate and unjustifiable” delays in their […]
People started a staggering 84 percent of all wildfires in the United States, a new study reveals. In the comprehensive, first-of-its-kind analysis of wildfire data over a 20-year period, the remaining 16 percent of fires started naturally or via lightning. Human-Ignited Fires In Focus University of Massachusetts professor Bethany Bradley and her coauthors probed 1.5 million wildfires occurring from 1992 to 2012, findings that human-induced fire season […]
By Aye Win Myint | NAYPYITAW NAYPYITAW Myanmar’s military defended its crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority as a lawful counterinsurgency operation at a rare news conference on Tuesday, adding it was necessary to defend the country. It was the first time the top generals directly addressed the mounting accusations of human rights abuses which, according to U.N. experts, may amount to crimes against humanity and ethnic […]
Domino’s in-app DRU Assist Screenshot: Asha McLean/ZDNet Domino’s has delivered new additions to its Domino’s Robotics Unit (DRU) family, announcing the DRU Platform, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based technology that will allow customers to order a pizza using their voice. As of Monday, customers will be able to use DRU Assist, an in-app AI virtual assistant that was built in partnership with natural language company Nuance. DRU Assist […]
By Isabel Coles and Maher Chmaytelli | MOSUL/BAGHDAD, Iraq MOSUL/BAGHDAD, Iraq U.S.-backed Iraqi forces on Tuesday battled their way to within firing range of Mosul’s main government buildings, a major target in the offensive to dislodge Islamic State militants from their remaining stronghold in the western side of the city. Terrified civilians were fleeing the fighting, some toward government lines, often under militant fire. Others were forced […]
By Stephen Kalin | SOUTH OF MOSUL, Iraq SOUTH OF MOSUL, Iraq A few hundred men who had scurried across front lines in a refugee exodus from Mosul sat on the ground in neat rows before an Iraqi intelligence officer who scanned the crowd for hidden militants. The officer pulled a teenager onto a raised platform and asked the group if he belonged to Islamic State (IS). […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for March 1, 2017, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. Ellen Fortini rounds up 10 things to do today in the UAE. Want to see your event listed here? Email us with the details and contact information at [email protected] newslide Abu Dhabi Exhibition talk Register […]
Barely a year ago, Vale, the Brazilian mining company, was reeling. Prices of iron ore, its principal export, were at an all-time low, investors were ditching its shares and China — the market on which it most depends — looked as if it was heading for a rapid and uncontrolled slowdown. Fast forward 13 months and iron ore is back in fashion. Vale is producing record amounts […]
This example of a 3-D ladar point cloud shows a fully foliated field site. Color indicates elevation above the ground, with red tones indicating a higher elevation value (for example, tree tops and vegetation) and blue tones indicating lower elevation value (ground-level vegetation and the ground itself). Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology The United States shares 5,525 miles of land border with Canada and 1,989 miles with […]
When the universe was young, a supermassive black hole heaved out a jet of particle-infused energy that raced through space at nearly the speed of light. Billions of years later, scientists has identified this black hole and four others similar to it that range in age from 1.4 billion to 1.9 billion years old. Source
We’re all exposed to unhealthy traffic pollutants, but people who spend a lot of time on or very near higher-traffic roads get more. The Center for Public Integrity and Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting teamed up to look at the schools across the country that sit within 500 feet of busy roads. We picked that distance because, in general, studies suggest that the biggest daytime […]
South Korean prosecutors have charged Lee Jae-yong, Samsung’s de facto boss, with bribery, embezzlement and other offences in connection with the country’s sprawling corruption scandal. The move on Tuesday is a blow to the leadership transition to the third generation of the founding family of South Korea’s largest conglomerate. The indictment of the 48-year-old vice-chairman of Samsung Electronics, along with four other Samsung executives, comes as the […]
Chatbots are fast becoming one of the pillars of artificial intelligence. In both internal and external communications, chatbots are becoming more accurate, consistent, scalable, and cost effective than humans. In the enterprise, chatbots are now being used to improve workflow, and asset optimisation joining up data from across the organisation. Palo Alto-based Maana has partnered with New York-based chatbot technology company exClone Inc to bring specialised chatbots […]
By Thomas Escritt | AMSTERDAM AMSTERDAM Since the evening in 2004 when policemen arrived unannounced to escort him and his wife to safety, Geert Wilders has lived in safe houses under 24-hour guard to protect him from Islamist militants who threatened to kill him. Film-maker Theo van Gogh had been shot, stabbed and nearly beheaded by a militant Islamist earlier that day, and Wilders, another prominent critic […]
BEIJING China’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said it hoped U.S. defence spending would be beneficial to maintaining global peace and stability, after the White House proposed a 10 percent increase in military spending. The proposed rise in the Pentagon budget to $603 billion comes as the United States has wound down major wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and remains the world’s strongest military power. An official familiar […]
Alexa is smart, feature-rich, and pretty innovative, but it has trouble spots, particularly with differentiating different voices to respond to. That may change soon. Amazon is reportedly developing an advanced voice-recognition feature that will allow Alexa to tell different voices apart, according to sources familiar with Amazon’s Alexa strategy. Will Alexa Be Able To Tell Voices Apart Soon? The report comes from Time. Alexa, like many virtual assistant, […]
