AP Virtual reality, what’s up with that? If you are curious about this highly buzzed high-tech form of entertainment but don’t feel like plunking down $1,000 or more on sophisticated hardware, just visit one of a slew of amusement-park-type rides popping up around the world. These experiences let you shoot aliens while riding a real-life roller coaster , cook …

  Reuters Facebook Inc, facing withering criticism for failing to stem a flood of phony news articles in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election, is taking a series of steps to weed out hoaxes and other types of false information, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. Facebook has long insisted that it is a technology company …

  Bloomberg Snow, a Snapchat clone that’s conquering Asia, is now setting its sights beyond the region, betting that it can attract users with stickers that sometimes border on the bizarre. While Snow, based in Bundang, South Korea, mostly replicates Snapchat’s features, there’s something for everyone among its 400 live-motion filters, which include everything from a dancing octopus to Super …

  CAPE CANAVERAL / AP The most advanced weather satellite ever built rocketed into space Saturday night, part of an $11 billion effort to revolutionize forecasting and save lives. This new GOES-R spacecraft will track U.S. weather as never before: hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, volcanic ash clouds, wildfires, lightning storms, even solar flares. Indeed, about 50 TV meteorologists from around the …

  Dakar / AFP Above the sacks of seeds and coal, three kerosene lamps gather dust in the tiny shed that Kenyan chicken farmer Bernard calls home. He prefers to use solar energy to light up his evenings, listen to the radio or watch television, after abandoning a diesel generator he said was expensive to maintain and burned fuel too …

  Paris / AFP Cutting food waste is an appealing social goal, but experiments in France found that measures to cut the amount of food being thrown out also saved supermarkets money. Like a number of other countries, France has recently adopted legislation that forces supermarkets to donate to charities food that is unwanted or past its sell-by date but …

  ABU DHABI / WAM Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD), signed a concessionary loan agreement to the tune of AED147 million with the Office Nationale des Chemins de Fer du Maroc, (ONCFM), Morocco’s national railway operator, to finance the construction of a high-speed train to reduce the distance between the cities of Tangier and Kenitra. Complementing ADFD’s first instalment …

  Dubai / WAM Members of Dubai SME, the agency of the Department of Economic Development (DED), mandated to develop the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector, won contracts worth AED17 million during the first half of 2016 under a partnership between the agency and Dubai Holding, a global investment holding company. This partnership aims to support competitive entrepreneurs in …

  ABU DHABI / WAM As part of the UAE’s policy to build trade and economic relations with other countries of the world, Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, will embark on a six-day tour of Cuba and Mexico on Sunday. During the visit, Al Mansouri will hold talks with senior Cuban and Mexican officials on ways to …

  Dubai / WAM The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MoFAIC), has, in co-operation with Expo 2020 Dubai, celebrated the cultural collaboration with sub-Saharan Africa at the launch of the book ‘Shared Vision, Shared Voices’ in the presence of HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Reem bint Ibrahim Al Hashemi, …