Life

The Indian artist drawing portraits with a typewriter

by Peter Hutchison Agence France Presse MUMBAI, India (AFP) — Clickety-clack, clickety-clack, ding rings out from a home in India’s Mumbai where Chandrakant Bhide is creating his latest artwork — on a typewriter. The 72-year-old thumps the keys of the bulky, manual machine to draw portraits of famous people, all bearing an unmistakeable resemblance to their subject. From politicians and film stars to cricketers, animation characters and religious symbols, Bhide has produced around 150 pieces […]

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Facebook to build $1 bn Singapore data center, first in Asia

SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — Facebook said Thursday it will invest over $1 billion to build a data center in Singapore, its first in Asia, powered by renewable energy and adapted to the city-state’s tropical climate. The center is expected to be operational around 2022, and will host Facebook servers and centralize its IT operations, Thomas Furlong, Facebook vice president of infrastructure data centers, told reporters. The 170,000 square meters (1.83 million square foot) site in the […]

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‘Carnivore’ sharks have a stomach for greens: study

by Hazel WARD Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — The bonnethead shark, a small member of the hammerhead family, was long thought to be a strict carnivore that would occasionally ingest greens purely by accident. Not so, scientists said Wednesday. The bonnethead follows an omnivorous diet in which seagrass plays a key, nutritional role. Although researchers have long known that Sphyrna tiburo eats copious quantities of seagrass, it was not believed to absorb any nutrients from […]

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1.4 billion risk disease from lack of exercise: WHO

  by Patrick Galey Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — More than 1.4 billion adults are putting themselves at heightened risk of deadly diseases by not getting enough exercise, doctors are warning, with global activity levels virtually unchanged in nearly two decades. With richer nations enjoying an increasingly comfortable, sedentary lifestyle, a study by the World Health Organization said a third of women and a quarter of men worldwide are in the firing line […]

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Egypt unearths one of oldest Nile Delta villages

CAIRO, Egypt (AFP) —  One of the oldest villages in the Nile Delta has been discovered after archaeologists unearthed artifacts dating to the fifth millennium BC, Egypt’s antiquities ministry has said. Remains of the village were uncovered by a French-Egyptian team at Tel Samara, in northeastern Egypt, the ministry said Sunday. Similar structures dating to the period between 4,200 BC and 2,900 BC “have never been found in that region,” said Ayman Ashmawy, the ministry’s […]

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Australia mints its most valuable coin ever

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia has minted a gold coin encrusted with rare pink diamonds worth Aus$2.48 million (US$1.8 million) to meet growing demand for high-end collectables from the ultra-rich. The two-kilogramme treasure, which depicts a sailing ship, a gold prospector and boab trees found in Western Australia, is considered legal tender and will be sold to the highest bidder. It is the most valuable coin ever made in Australia and is expected to be […]

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UAE announces first astronauts to go to space

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — The United Arab Emirates has selected its first two astronauts to go on a mission to the International Space Station, Dubai’s ruler said Monday. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktoum named the new astronauts as Hazza al-Mansouri, 34, and 37-year-old Sultan al-Neyadi. Writing on Twitter, he said the duo “raise the bar of ambitions for future Emirati generations”. Sheikh Mohammed, the UAE’s vice president and prime minister, last year vowed to […]

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Facebook rolls out video service worldwide

PARIS, France (AFP) — Facebook said Wednesday it is rolling out globally its Watch video service, which has already been available in the United States for more than a year. “We designed the product not just in a mindless consumption but in order to get people engaged,” said Fidji Simo, Facebook’s vice president for video. Facebook launched Watch amid a shift in video viewing habits away from traditional television to online platforms including Netflix and […]

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Brief Facebook outage after ‘networking issues’

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP)–Facebook users around the world reported the social network was briefly inaccessible Monday, with many taking to Twitter to voice their frustration. Reports of issues on the downdetector.com website began around 2100 GMT, with users particularly affected in North America and Europe. The outage lasted less than 90 minutes before normal service resumed. Some users had read-only access while others were unable to log in. “Earlier today, a networking issue caused some […]

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