Life

The Louvre Abu Dhabi, first of its kind

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — The Louvre Abu Dhabi, the first museum to bear the Louvre name outside France, presents around 600 pieces in a modern, light-filled structure in harmony with its desert-island setting. Flagged as “the first universal museum in the Arab world,” it sits on the low-lying Saadiyat Island, a developing tourism and culture hub 500 meters (1,600 feet) off the coast of the United Arab Emirates’ capital. It is the […]

Factory worker wins first Tiramisu World Cup

by Giovanna Girardi with Ella Ide in Rome Agence France-Presse TREVISO, Italy (AFP) — An Italian factory worker won the first ever Tiramisu World Cup on Sunday, beating 700 other amateurs to whip up the softest and creamiest version of Italy’s famous dessert. Hundreds of would-be pudding maestros descended on the city of Treviso armed with whisks and sieves to compete in the two-day challenge to make the best tiramisu, which means “pick-me-up” in Italian. […]

Hundreds of parrots flock to southwest China city

YUNNAN, China (CCTV) — Hundreds of red-breasted parakeets, a species of parrot, have flocked to the city of Ruili in southwest China recently, attracting photographers across the country to capture the spectacular sights. Red-breasted parakeets would come in droves to Ruili in Yunnan Province’s Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture every autumn when the corn on the farmland by the Ruili River is ripe. Thanks to the sound local ecological environment, more and more red-breasted parakeets are coming […]

Elvis’s pink Cadillac and Jackie O’s nightgown just some of the items to hit the auction block

LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — A lineup of celebrity memorabilia and collectibles is hitting the auction block. GWS auctions has amassed a diverse collection which include big ticket items such as a pink Cadillac once by Elvis Presley to delicate pieces like Jackie O’s nightgown. The one theme all of the offerings have in common is that at one time they belonged to some of the 20th century’s biggest icons. One of the biggest […]

Electrode belt helps doctors ‘see’ inside the lungs

VIENNA, Austria (Reuters) — A new medical imaging technique, called Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT), where electrodes are used to apply high-frequency currents through the body, could help doctors to continuously monitor the function of patients’ lungs during artificial respiration. Artificial ventilation is often vital to a patient’s rehabilitation, but doctors can find it difficult to gauge the correct air pressure for every individual, with too much possibly causing lung trauma. “Mechanical ventilation on one hand […]

INFOGRAPHICS: November 5 is World Tsunami Awareness Day

Though it is rare, tsunami is one of the most destructive natural disasters in the world which can kill thousands of lives in just a spur of the moment. The deadliest tsunami in history happened on December 26, 2004 in Indonesia when the 9.1 magnitude earthquake struck the coast of Sumatra with an estimated depth of 30 kilometers and height of 50 meters, reaching 5 km inland. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the […]

In reversal, US tech firms back bill on human trafficking

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Major US tech firms reversed course Friday and endorsed a proposal in Congress which could hold website owners liable for human trafficking. The Internet Association, which includes giants Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Amazon, said in a statement it supported the measure after reaching a compromise with legislative sponsors. The association “is committed to combating sexual exploitation and sex trafficking online” president Michael Beckerman said in endorsing the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA). “Important […]

We need to do more’ about misinformation, Google says

by Lucie Godeau Agence France-Presse DUBLIN, Ireland (AFP) — A top Google executive has said the US internet giant has to do more to crack down on illegal content and misinformation, after American firms were grilled in Congress over Russian meddling in the 2016 US election. “We’ve made some progress and we obviously need to do more,” Matt Brittin, president of Google’s Europe, Middle East and Africa division, told reporters at Google’s European headquarters in Dublin on […]

WATCH: Newly discovered orangutan species is most endangered great ape: study

https://youtu.be/66jNt5KLWqI JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — A new species of orangutan has been discovered in the remote jungles of Indonesia, immediately becoming the world’s most endangered great ape, researchers said Thursday. “It’s the first declaration of a new great ape species in about 100 years,” Ian Singleton, co-author of the study and director of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme, told AFP. The species, called ‘Tapanuli orangutan’, lives in the Batang Toru forest on Sumatra island, and […]

Indonesia to open first contemporary art gallery

by Harry PEARL Agence France-Presse JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia’s first international gallery of contemporary art opens Saturday, bringing together works by Ai Weiwei, Mark Rothko and Indonesian masters in a freeflowing modern space overlooking the Jakarta skyline. The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum MACAN) holds nearly 800 paintings and sculptures, and aims to provide a world-class gallery to a country starved of quality museum infrastructure. The collection, mostly acquired by […]

China completes building of Asia’s largest cutter suction dredger

NANTONG, China (Reuters) — China launched Asia’s largest cutter suction dredger on Friday at the port of Nantong, east China’s Jiangsu Province, marking a big stride forward in the country’s building of dredgers. The dredger, “Tiankun”, is 140 meters long and 27.8 meters wide. It can smash underwater rocks, suck out sand, water and squirt to as far as 15 km at a speed of 6,000 cubic meters per hour, equivalent to three standard swimming […]

Global smartphone sales keep momentum: IDC

SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — The global smartphone market has momentum going into the year-end holiday shopping season, according to preliminary figures released Thursday by International Data Corporation (IDC). An estimated 373.1 million smartphones were shipped worldwide during the third quarter of this year in a 2.7 percent rise from the same period in 2016, IDC said in a statement. While IDC analysts considered the growth low, they saw it as a sign “the industry still has […]