Worldwide

Facebook said on Thursday it had removed 265 Facebook and Instagram accounts, pages, groups and events linked to Israel due to what it called “inauthentic behavior” targeting users in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa. The move is part of wider efforts by Facebook to address concerns over privacy lapses …

Tesla’s “Autopilot” system was engaged by a driver who was killed in a March crash in Florida, according to an initial accident report released Thursday. Preliminary data showed the Tesla driver engaged “Autopilot” about 10 seconds before the crash and that the device was active at the time the vehicle …

A Belgian appeals court has ruled that former King Albert II is to be fined €5,000 (£4,370) a day if he refuses to undergo a DNA test. In February, he refused to undergo such a test in a case aimed at proving he fathered a love child in the 1960s. …

An international crime gang which used malware to steal $100m (£77m) from more than 40,000 victims has been dismantled. A complex police operation conducted investigations in the US, Bulgaria, Germany, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. The gang infected computers with GozNym malware, which captured online banking details to access bank accounts. …

US President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency over technology designed or produced by ‘foreign adversaries,’ an act widely understood to target China’s ZTE and Huawei in an effort to freeze them out of 5G market. Arguing that “foreign adversaries are increasingly creating and exploiting vulnerabilities in information and …

Bill de Blasio is the latest Democratic candidate in the 2020 presidential campaign to be mercilessly mocked by the Republican frontrunner, President Donald Trump. He said the newcomer was the worst mayor New York ever had. Trump took to Twitter on Thursday to lash out at de Blasio’s recently announced …

Israeli troops wounded nearly 50 Palestinians at the Gaza border on Wednesday during protests to mark the 71st anniversary of the “Nakba”, or catastrophe, when many Palestinians lost their homes in the fighting around Israel’s creation, Gaza officials said. Thousands had gathered at the coastal enclave’s frontier with Israel, the …

The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen carried out several air strikes on the Houthi-held capital Sanaa on Thursday after the movement claimed responsibility for drone attacks on Saudi oil installations. The Sanaa strikes targeted nine military sites in and around the city, residents said. Rubble filled a populated street lined …

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday Tehran does not seek war with the United States despite mounting tensions between the two arch-enemies over Iranian nuclear capabilities and its missile program. In comments to senior officials carried by state television, Ayatollah Khamenei also reiterated that the Islamic Republic …

Iran has developed software to protect its industry against the Stuxnet computer virus, the Iranian communications minister said on Thursday, after accusing Israel in November of a cyber attack on Tehran’s telecommunications facilities. Stuxnet, which is widely believed to have been developed by the United States and Israel, was discovered …

Five global technology companies have pledged to limit terrorist material online. Facebook, Amazon, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft will develop shared tools to detect and remove terrorist or extremist content among other measures. The pledge was made at a Paris summit, which was called after the terror attack in Christchurch, New …

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday opened a suspension bridge over the Nile touted as the world’s widest, one of a series of military-led, mega-projects designed to improve infrastructure and provide jobs. The bridge, which crosses the Nile just north of central Cairo, is a key link in a …

Brexit-supporting rebels in British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party said on Wednesday they would vote down her European Union divorce deal when she brings it back to parliament next month. Britain had been due to leave the EU on March 29 but parliament has three times rejected the withdrawal …

Iran has suspended some of its commitments under a nuclear agreement it signed with six world powers in 2015, upon an order from the country’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), an informed official in the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) says. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, …

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres aims to draw up a global plan to fight a rising tide of hate speech, he said on Tuesday, during a visit to a New Zealand mosque where dozens of worshippers were killed in a mass shooting in March. Guterres visited the Al Noor Mosque …

The spectacular meltdown in this week’s episode of hit TV show Game of Thrones has inspired a meme that perfectly encapsulates how US foreign policy is portrayed and the reality on the ground. Daenerys Targaryen’s decision to lay waste to King’s Landing and torch thousands of civilians in the penultimate …

Iron is crucial for the healthy functioning of your body. But one Indian man clearly overdid it when he snacked on as many as 116 iron nails, several pellets, and a long wire, which doctors had to remove from his stomach. A surgeon in Bundi, north-western India, was puzzled after …

Saudi Arabia said armed drones had struck two oil pumping stations in the kingdom on Tuesday in what it called a “cowardly” act of terrorism two days after Saudi oil tankers were sabotaged off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. The energy minister of the world’s largest oil exporter …

ran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif will hold talks with his counterpart in the Indian capital on Tuesday after New Delhi stopped purchases of Iranian oil this month in the wake of renewed U.S. sanctions. India was Iran’s top oil client after China, but halted imports after Washington reimposed sanctions on …

Saudi Arabia said on Monday that two of its oil tankers were among those attacked off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and said it was an attempt to undermine the security of crude supplies amid tensions between the United States and Iran. The UAE said on Sunday that …