More Sections

Saudi Arabia has reportedly purchased $300 million worth of spy software from Israel as Riyadh presses ahead with its crackdown against dissidents and pro-democracy campaigners in the ultra-conservative kingdom. Arabic-language al-Khaleej Online news website, citing unnamed senior Arab sources, reported that representatives from the Riyadh regime and Israeli firms met …

London is to get a much-needed breath of fresh air on its most extensive car-free day to date, with 12.4 miles (20km) of the road to be closed in the center of the British capital. Mayor Sadiq Khan unveiled the plans for September 22 on Thursday — Clean Air Day …

India is set to overtake China as the world’s most populous country in less than a decade, according to a new United Nations report. China and India currently account for about 37% of the entire global population of roughly 7.7 billion, with China currently home to about 1.4 billion people …

Oil rose by more than 3% to above $63 a barrel on Thursday after Iran shot down a U.S. military drone, raising fears of a military confrontation between Tehran and Washington. Expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve could cut interest rates at its next meeting, stimulating growth in the world’s …

For the last year, Facebook has been signaling it wants in on the cryptocurrency phenomenon. At its F8 developer’s conference last month, co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he wants to make sending money as easy as sending a photo: digital, immediate, free and secure. On Tuesday, the company formally …

Overcrowding. Violence. Infectious diseases. Environmental degradation. It may sound like the worst of modern mega-cities. But people encountered these very same problems when the first large settlements were being established millennia ago as humans began to swap a nomadic hunter-gatherer existence for a lifestyle centered on farming, scientists said on …

Michel Platini, the former head of European football association UEFA, was detained for questioning by French police on Tuesday over the awarding of the 2022 World Cup soccer tournament to Qatar. Platini’s lawyer, William Bourdon, said his client was innocent of all charges and that he was being questioned on …

A beachside New Zealand suburb known for roaming chickens and yoga has become infested with hordes of unwelcome guests: large, writhing rats. The rodents — which have swarmed around shops and houses in the artsy west Auckland suburb of Titirangi — have made headlines in New Zealand recently, where local …

At least 100 children have died this month in the eastern Indian state of Bihar from an illness that impairs the functioning of the brain. Encephalitis, commonly known as brain fever, has led to the death of 97 children, and 146 others have been treated for the disease, Shailesh Prasad …

At present, anyone in the UK can set up a parlor and offer procedures without proper training, a report from the Royal Society for Public Health says. But with one in five adults now having a tattoo, more should be done, it says, to protect the public. NHS England said …

About 40,000 years ago, a wolf died in what we know as Siberia. Now its severed head has been found, and because of the freezing conditions, it is so well preserved that its fur, teeth, brain and facial tissue are largely intact. A Yakutia resident, Pavel Yefimov, found the head …

Huawei will delay the launch of its much-touted foldable 5G Mate X smartphone by three months, the latest setback for the company that was slapped with U.S. sanctions last month. The Mate X, a competitor to Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Fold, is expected to be rolled out globally in September, Vincent …

An ancient tower dating back 2,000 years in the historic Afghan city of Ghazni collapsed this week, local officials said, raising concerns about the vulnerability of the country’s cultural heritage and the government’s ability to protect them. The old citadel is known as Ghaznain Fort originally had 36 towers, but …

Two weeks after an avalanche swept up and probably killed a group of climbers in the Himalayas, Indian authorities mounted efforts to pluck their bodies from an exposed mountain face, braving harsh weather and treacherous terrain. The peaks in the 2,400-km (1,500-mile) -long range are among some of the world’s …

Telegram’s founder Pavel Durov has said a massive cyber attack on his messaging service originated from China. On Wednesday, the firm confirmed it suffered a “powerful” Distributed Denial of Service attack which disrupted services for about an hour. In a DDoS attack, hackers overwhelm a target’s servers with junk requests. …

Galactic winds are believed to have a major impact on how mysterious black holes affect the development of galaxies around them, but scientists are as yet baffled by how exactly this powerful phenomenon occurs. Scientists have discovered the composition of the powerful galactic winds emanating from supermassive black holes, according …

At least 43 children have died in less than two weeks in the Indian state of Bihar from a brain disease that scientists believe could be linked to consumption of lychee fruit. Health officials said the children died at two hospitals in Muzaffarpur, a region of the state that is …

In the heart of the Czech countryside, Kutná Hora houses some of the most beautiful architecture in the whole of Bohemia. Positioned around 70 kilometers (about 43 miles) east of Prague, this medieval city competed politically, economically and culturally with the capital city during the 13th to 16th centuries, thanks …

Google unveiled images of its forthcoming flagship Pixel 4 smartphone on Twitter Wednesday. A tweet included two photos of the new phone with one image showing a large, square camera bump on the back of the device, the most apparent design change from past models. The tweet from Google alluded …

Researchers have uncovered the earliest known evidence of cannabis use, from tombs in western China. The study suggests cannabis was being smoked at least 2,500 years ago, and that it may have been associated with ritual or religious activities. Traces of the drug were identified in wooden burners from the …