PESHAWAR / AP A bomb exploded Saturday in a market in a northwest tribal region that borders Afghanistan, killing 20 people and wounding at least 50, officials said. Dr Sabir Hussain at the main hospital in Parachinar, the capital of Pakistan’s Kurram tribal region, said two wounded victims died during treatment, raising the death toll. Shahid Khan, an assistant tribal ...
Read More »2 die in central China landslide
BEIJING /Â AP At least two people were killed and 10 others are missing after a hotel in central China was buried in a landslide, the local government reported on Saturday. Crews were working to dig out those trapped in the Mirage Hotel that was struck by the disaster around 7:30 p.m. on Friday, the government of Nanzhang county in ...
Read More »Gambian activists urge justice as longtime leader steps down
BANJUL / AP As Gambia’s defeated authoritarian ruler prepares to leave the country, human rights activists demand that he be held accountable for alleged abuses. Yahya Jammeh announced early Saturday he will cede power, after hours of last-ditch talks with regional leaders and the threat that a regional military force would forcibly remove him. No date has been set for ...
Read More »Chinese express doubts about US relations under Trump
BEIJING / AP People in Beijing expressed doubts on Saturday about President Donald Trump’s ability to steer the US economy and manage China-American relations, underscoring concerns over trade, Taiwan and other issues. While Trump didn’t mention China in his inaugural address on Friday, he referred often to the country during the campaign and upended diplomatic protocol after the election by ...
Read More »Europe’s nationalist leaders launch year of election hopes
KOBLENZ / AP French presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen declared on Saturday that 2017 will be the “year of the awakening of the people of continental Europe†as she joined fellow nationalist leaders in Germany at the beginning of a year of high-stakes national elections. Le Pen was joined by the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders, Matteo Salvini of Italy’s Northern League ...
Read More »Erdogan advocates powerful presidency after key vote
ISTANBUL / AP Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has started campaigning for constitutional reforms that would greatly expand the powers of his office, hours after a vote in parliament cleared the way for a national referendum on the issue. Speaking in Istanbul on Saturday, he hailed the assembly’s early-morning decision and said “God willing the people will give the true ...
Read More »Cryptocurrency emerges as tool to block cyber attacks
Bloomberg The US defense agency that helped invent the Internet is now looking at blockchain, the database technology behind the digital currency bitcoin, to help protect the networks its research made possible. The Defense Advance Research Projects Agency, an R&D arm of the military, has funded several startups and technology companies, such as Guardtime Federal LLC, while others including ...
Read More »Robot cars to descend on 10 test sites in US
Bloomberg Robot cars will be put through their paces by researchers and federal regulators at 10 test tracks designated by the US as official sites for validating the technology. In one of its last acts under the Obama administration, the Transportation Department picked two sites in California and one each in Michigan and seven other states as locations for ...
Read More »Samsung to blame Note 7 fiasco on irregular sized battery
Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co. will reveal on Monday that irregularly sized batteries made by an affiliate caused the overheating and fires that eventually forced the cessation of its Note 7 smartphone line, a person familiar with the matter said. The world’s largest smartphone maker is scheduled to announce the results of an investigation into the fires that forced it ...
Read More »Flabby heart keeps pumping with squeeze from robotic sleeve
WASHINGTON / AP Scientists are developing a robotic sleeve that can encase a flabby diseased heart and gently squeeze to keep it pumping. So far it’s been tested only in animals, improving blood flow in pigs. But this “soft robotic†device mimics the natural movements of a beating heart, a strategy for next-generation treatments of deadly heart failure. The key: ...
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