Life

Heatwave forces Tour Down Under to be shortened

ADELAIDE, Australia (AFP) — South Australia’s extreme heatwave conditions have forced Tour Down Under organizers to shorten Thursday’s third stage from Glenelg to Victor Harbor. With temperatures forecast to climb above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), race director Mike Turtur said the distance of the stage had been reduced by 26 kilometres, or two laps of the final circuit. “The safety and welfare of the riders, spectators and everyone involved with the race is always our primary concern,” Turtur said in a statement. “We […]

Yabba dabba doo! Malaysian sultan gets Flintstones car

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — A Malaysian sultan has been given a life-size replica of Fred Flintstone’s car from the classic cartoon, although the modern update has an engine so he won’t tire out his regal feet. Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar of Johor, one of Malaysia’s most powerful and wealthiest state rulers, received the belated birthday gift from a fellow high-ranking royal this week. The model of the car from “The Flintstones,” the sultan’s favorite […]

YouTube toughens rules regarding which videos get ads

SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — YouTube on Tuesday announced ramped-up rules regarding when it will run ads with videos as it scrambled to quell concerns by brands about being paired with troublesome content. “There’s no denying 2017 was a difficult year, with several issues affecting our community and our advertising partners,” YouTube vice president of display, video and analytics Paul Muret said in a blog post. “The challenges we faced in 2017 have helped […]

S. Korea’s ‘kimchi deficit’ hits record high

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea’s trade deficit in kimchi, its proud traditional side dish of fermented cabbage, reached an all-time high last year as low-priced Chinese imports flooded the market, statistics showed Wednesday. The spicy foodstuff is emblematic of Korean cuisine and accompanies almost every meal served in the country, whatever its culinary origins, with kimchi-making still an important annual ritual for many families. But the commercial market has been deluged by Chinese […]

Alien attack’ in Tokyo as Space Invaders turns 40

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Block graphic aliens dropped down the window panes of a Tokyo skyscraper before being blasted into oblivion by enthusiastic gamers celebrating 40 years of the arcade sensation “Space Invaders.” Four decades after the game took the world by storm, a high-tech exhibition is allowing enthusiasts to save the world from extra-terrestrial invasion in a variety of novel ways. Part of the installation sees the game projected inside the windows of a […]

Google ‘cloud’ grows with new undersea data cables

SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Google on Tuesday said it is adding three new undersea data cables as it continues to bulk up its ability to power cloud services around the world. The US internet behemoth has spent $30 billion improving its infrastructure during the past three years and “we’re not done yet,” according to cloud platform vice president Ben Treynor Sloss. Fast, reliable internet connections have become imperative as games, social networks, television, […]

Chinese solar boom sparks global renewables boon: study

PARIS, France (AFP) — A Chinese boom in solar panel installation last year helped drive global investment in renewable clean energy technology to record levels, a new study showed Tuesday. After a dip in 2016, overall global investment in the sector rose 3.0 percent to a total $333.5 billion, offsetting falls in Japan, Germany and Britain, according to the Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) study. That was the second best annual showing to date after […]

US state of New Jersey outlaws drunk droning

NEW YOR, United States (AFP) — Drunk driving has been a social taboo for decades, but New Jersey has now added drunk droning to the statute books: outlawing the flying of unmanned aircraft after one too many drinks. The law makes it an offense to operate a drone under the influence of intoxicating liquor, narcotic, hallucinogenic or habit-producing drug or with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent or more. Infractions can be punishable by […]

Breastfeeding for 6 months cuts diabetes risk in half: study

MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Women who breastfeed their babies for six months or more may be able to cut their risk of developing diabetes in the future by nearly half, according to a study Tuesday. The findings from a three-decade US study of more than 1,200 white and African-American women were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine. “We found a very strong association between breastfeeding duration and lower […]

EU sets 2030 target for recyclable plastic packaging

STRASBOURG, France (AFP) — The European Union unveiled plans Tuesday for all plastic packaging in Europe to be recyclable by 2030 and phase out single-use plastic like coffee cups to fight pollution. The strategy announced by the European Commission, the EU-executive, follows China’s decision to ban imports of foreign waste products for recycling, including huge quantities from Europe. “The commission aims to increase plastic recycling and for all plastic packaging to be reusable or recyclable […]

Video: Know more about volcanoes and how they erupt

  Thousands fled from their homes as lava oozed out of a Mayon, a rumbling Philippine volcano on Monday, January 15, 2018, in what volcanologists described as a “quiet eruption”, warning it could lead to a hazardous explosion within days. But what leads to volcanic eruptions? Most of the world’s volcanoes are found around the Pacific Ocean’s Ring of Fire, a meeting point of tectonic plates and an area of intense seismic activity. Tectonic plates […]