Relaxnews The former Soviet Union is proving to be a productive source of photo and video apps that go viral. The latest is Prisma. The smartphone app can transform your photos — even lousy ones — into something resembling a work of art, stylized as an impressionist or pop-art painting. It’s been downloaded about 16.5 million times since release …

  Bloomberg With iPhone sales and profits sliding, Apple on Tuesday sought to highlight its growth in services as it seeks to reduce dependence on its main cash driver. In its quarterly update, Apple said profits slumped 27 percent from a year ago to $7.8 billion on a sharp drop in iPhone sales. Apple sold 40.4 million iPhones in the …

  Relaxnews Google has announced on its blog an update to Google Maps, making some visual changes to the service on desktop, Android and iOS, as well as introducing a few additions to help make it easier for users to get to where they want to go. For a cleaner, clearer look, Google has removed any information that it believes …

  AFP Grain by grain, truckload by truckload, Laos’ section of the Mekong River is being dredged of sand to make cement — a commodity being devoured by a Chinese-led building boom in the capital. But the hollowing out of the riverbed is also damaging a vital waterway that feeds hundreds of thousands of fishermen and farmers in the poverty-stricken …

  AFP Two years after devastating floods, banana planters in Ivory Coast have staged a comeback, eyeing an increase in production and new markets for the popular fruit. The west African country, which has grown bananas for more than 50 years, was annually exporting almost 300,000 tonnes of fruit before disaster struck. In Nieky, a vital banana-growing region, many have …

WASHINGTON China suffered a significant setback this month in its bid for dominance in the South China Sea, and its leaders are following a familiar script after such reversals: They’re making angry statements but taking little action while they assess the situation. The U.S. is playing a characteristic role in such a flare-up, too. Rather than crowing about victory, it’s …

  Japan has taken a bold step and Abenomics is once again at play. But will it yield the desired results? This is a pertinent question which has no easy answer. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a 28-trillion yen ($266 billion) economic stimulus package ahead of the crucial Bank of Japan (BoJ) meeting. BoJ is also expected to …

  Ramesh Ponnuru Bill Clinton took on a daunting task on the Democratic convention’s second night: convincing Americans who have been watching his wife for a quarter-century that their picture of her is mistaken, that she is not the candidate of the status quo but “the best darn change-maker” he has ever known. He told us about Hillary Clinton’s parents …

  The news in late June that Russia and Turkey were making noticeable moves toward repairing relations damaged last year when a Russian jet was shot down by Turks along the border with Syria was overshadowed by a terrorist attack at the Istanbul airport on June 28. Unrelated as the two events were, the news cycle quickly spun away from …

  The willingness of Hillary Clinton campaign’s to suggest that Russia has interfered in the U.S. presidential election — in the form of President Vladimir Putin’s supposed help for Donald Trump — exposes the weakness of the Democratic candidate’s presidential bid. The campaign is wasting ammunition on loud but inefficient accusations, instead of looking for avenues of attack that would …