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TOKYO, Japan (AFP) – It has played football with former US president Barack Obama and danced for German leader Angela Merkel, but Honda’s ASIMO robot may have reached the end of the line. Launched in 2000, the humanoid machine resembling a shrunken spaceman has become arguably Japan’s most famous robot, wheeled out to impress visiting politicians over the years. But Honda said Thursday it may scrap future generations of ASIMO, now on its seventh […]
SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP)–Singapore may start turning back foreign visitors who do not have required vaccinations, authorities said, in a bid to protect the tightly-controlled country from infectious diseases. The country of 5.6 million people is a popular tourist destination, with 17.4 million visitors arriving in 2017. But its small size and openness have sometimes left it vulnerable, and it was hit hard by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003. Travelers are currently […]
OSLO, Norway (AFP) — Facebook and Google are pushing users to share private information by offering “invasive” and limited default options despite new EU data protection laws aimed at giving users more control and choice, a government study said Wednesday. The Norwegian Consumer Council found that the US tech giants’ privacy updates clash with the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which forces companies to clarify what choices people have when sharing private information. “These […]
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP)–Twitter on Tuesday said it will begin asking for email addresses or phone numbers to confirm new accounts as part of a battle against manipulation, particularly by automated bots. Adding a way to check that a real person is behind new accounts was described by Twitter as being among measures to fight abuse, trolls, and hateful content. “This is an important change to defend against people who try to take advantage […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Flight crews have higher than average rates of certain cancers, according to a study of more than 5,000 US-based flight attendants. “We report a higher lifetime prevalence of breast, melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers among flight crews relative to the general population,” said Irina Mordukhovich, a researcher at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and co-author of a study published Tuesday in the journal Environmental Health. “This is striking given […]
by Ivan Couronne © Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP)–Friday morning at 5:24 am (0924 GMT), a rocket owned by the US company SpaceX will blast off from Florida carrying two and a half tons of gear from NASA, only to dock three days later and 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth at the International Space Station. The rocket itself is not new. It launched a NASA satellite into orbit two months ago, then landed […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — An inspirational new version of Barbie will encourage young girls to embark on careers in engineering and the sciences, the iconic doll’s manufacturer Mattel said on Tuesday. Barbie, who first hit the shelves in 1959, prides herself on trying out jobs where women aren’t strongly represented, to add to her more traditional skill set of dancing with Ken and looking fabulous. The company has announced a “Career of the […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) – New York’s iconic Central Park officially goes car-free Wednesday after the final vehicle drives through the green oasis and tourist magnet in the heart of America’s most populous urban jungle. City officials, park and cycling advocates were to join a bike ride late Tuesday behind the last car driving through the Manhattan park at 7:00 pm, restoring the green space to its original use as a refuge and […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) – An outbreak of polio has been confirmed in Papua New Guinea, the World Health Organization and the government said, with the virus detected in a child 18 years after the Pacific nation was declared free of the disease. The WHO said there was one confirmed case — a six-year-old boy with lower limb weakness from Morobe province — with the disease detected in late April, and paralysis associated with the virus […]
MUMBAI, India (AFP) — Burger King, McDonald’s and Starbucks are among dozens of companies fined for violating a new ban on single-use plastics in India’s commercial capital Mumbai, an official said Tuesday. The rules, in force since Saturday, prohibit the use of disposable plastic items such as bags, cutlery, cups and bottles under a certain size. Businesses and residents face fines of between 5,000 rupees ($73) for a first-time offense to 25,000 rupees ($367) or […]
TOKYO, JAPAN (AFP) – Resplendent in shocking pink, a sleek “Hello Kitty” bullet train, complete with special carriages festooned with images of the global icon from Japan, has been unveiled before it chugs into service this week. The special shinkansen or bullet train will run for the next three months between the western cities of Osaka and Fukuoka from Saturday, the West Japan Railway firm said, hoping that one of the country’s most […]
by Marlowe Hood Agence France-Presse A bacterial infection ravaging olive orchards in southern Europe can be detected from small planes or drones well before symptoms appear, offering panicky growers the prospect of an early warning system, scientists said Monday. Using high-tech cameras that detect heat and the electromagnetic spectrum from X-ray to radio waves, researchers were able to spot diseased trees that, on the ground, still seemed healthy, they reported in the journal Nature […]
