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Relaxnews At a Qualcomm-hosted conference on the developments in 4G and 5G connectivity one would expect news and announcements regarding when the next wave of super-fast phones are coming. And, according to the company whose chips power the majority of smartphones and tablets around the world, it’s 2018. That’s when its first 5G modem, the Snapdragon X50, launches. It promises ...

  Sydney / AFP Australian archaeologists announced plans to recreate Laos’ mysterious Plain of Jars as a three-dimensional virtual reality experience, that could one day see museum visitors walk through remote dig sites. The Plain of Jars, in Laos’ central Xieng Khouang province, is scattered with thousands of stone vessels but scientists have yet to discover their original purpose. Archaeologists ...

  Yangon / AFP With turquoise columns propping up a pink and yellow portico, Myanmar’s art deco style Thwin cinema is a rare relic from a golden age of movie-making that dazzled audiences more than half a century ago. Myanmar’s film industry, once the most vibrant and prolific in the region, shrivelled under a military regime that smothered the arts ...

  Rumangabo / AFP A powerful combination of love and guns is helping rebuild an endangered gorilla community in the jungles of war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Threatened with extinction, some of the world’s last remaining mountain gorillas live on either side of the border between Rwanda and DR Congo, as well as in Uganda. On the Rwandan side, ...

  Alibaba’s Jack Ma has big dreams. Having transformed Chinese retail, he’s now determined to reinvigorate globalization. The way to do so, according to his annual shareholder letter released last week, is for other countries to use or replicate Alibaba’s “commerce infrastructure,” which includes everything from sales portals to payment systems. Ma hopes to see similar systems applied on a ...

  One of the few bright spots for international investors following the U.K.’s June vote to quit the European Union was the swift establishment of political stability. David Cameron’s decision to fall on his sword threatened a divisive battle for control of the ruling Conservative government; instead, Theresa May emerged unchallenged and triumphant as her rivals dropped away. That stability, ...

  The latest U.S. easing of regulations on commerce with Cuba is good news, not least for fans of rum and cigars. But it’s also a sign that President Barack Obama’s drive to normalize relations is approaching the limits of his authority. With this new initiative, Obama has done about as much as he can to lighten the burden of ...

  Under a pledge made in 2009 in Copenhagen, the rich countries are supposed to give $100-billion annually to poor nations from 2020. This money is to be used in climate change mitigation. The 38 developed countries — who had signed the vow back then — on Tuesday said that they were “confident” of meeting the target. There was initial ...

  In a democracy, the “people” are the supreme arbiters, and their wisdom speaks through the electoral process. Such is the assumption on which the modern world has been built since God and monarchs began to fade from the scene. Lately, however, the wisdom of the people has felt a bit off-key. In one country after another, from the Philippines ...

  Of an estimated 2.6 billion mobile-phone owners in low- and middle-income countries last year, 1.4 billion were men and 1.2 were women, according to a study conducted for the mobile industry trade group GSMA. Most of that mobile-phone gender gap was concentrated in just one country, India, where 114 million fewer women than men had phones. This leads to ...