Apple is refusing to compensate a woman whose Beats headphones exploded in her face, claiming the batteries were at fault. Earlier this year, the anonymous woman says she was asleep on a flight from Beijing to Melbourne when she was awakened by an explosion and heat searing her face. The sparking headphones burned her face … Read more
Websites that harbour “disruptive, shocking or malicious” adverts will appear less frequently on user’s news feeds, Facebook has said. The social network is tweaking the algorithm that picks posts for feeds to do a better job of spotting “low quality” web pages. Instead, the algorithm will seek out more informative posts. It said the change … Read more
Google is changing the way its core search engine works to help stop the spread of fake news and hate speech. The changes involve different measures for ranking sites and people checking results are accurate. In a blog, Google said the changes should thwart attempts to abuse its algorithms that let extremists promote their content. … Read more
Apple has filed a complaint against Swatch in a Swiss court over the use of the phrase Tick Different in a marketing campaign. Swatch is using the slogan to market a wristwatch containing a contactless payment chip. Apple says the phrase unfairly references its Think Different campaign, which ran in the 1990s. According to Swiss … Read more
After a crushing defeat in the effort to repeal Obamacare, the Trump administration is hoping for smoother sailing on tax reform, expecting this will be less divisive among Republican party factions. “Health care is a very, very complicated issue. In a way (taxes are) a lot simpler,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday. And Vice … Read more
South African President Jacob Zuma has ordered his finance minister to return from an overseas investment trip, the presidency said Monday, fuelling speculation that a cabinet reshuffle is imminent. Zuma’s decision to recall Pravin Gordhan from Britain has led to media speculation that he could be sacked. The two men have had an increasingly uneasy … Read more
Uber president Jeff Jones is leaving the company after less than six months. A source at the taxi booking app told the BBC the resignation was “completely unexpected”. They said Mr Jones was frustrated the company was hiring a new chief operating officer and that he was not among the candidates. But according to technology … Read more
Uber president Jeff Jones is leaving the company after less than six months. A source at the taxi booking app told the BBC the resignation was “completely unexpected”. They said Mr Jones was frustrated the company was hiring a new chief operating officer and that he was not among the candidates. But according to technology … Read more
An elderly man burnt a nurse alive at a clinic in central Israel on Tuesday after apparently being dissatisfied by the treatment he had received, police said. The suspect, in his late 70s, fled the scene in his car after the incident in Holon, southeast of Tel Aviv, but was later arrested, police said. The … Read more
US federal agencies have launched a criminal investigation into the public release of documents said to detail CIA hacking tools, US officials say. They told US media that the FBI and CIA were co-ordinating the inquiry after Wikileaks published thousands of files. These carried claims that the CIA had developed ways to listen in on … Read more
Nearly three decades after it helped topple communist totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe, US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is challenging Moscow again, this time with a new 24-hour TV news channel in Russian. Officially launched in Prague this month, the “Current Time” channel targets an audience of more than 270 million people, mostly in the … Read more
This is the excavation site from where the Germans were kidnapped Two German citizens who were rescued from kidnappers by Nigerian security forces over the weekend are in the care of the German embassy in the capital, Abuja, the German news site Deutsche Welle reports . The two were kidnapped on Wednesday during a dig … Read more
President Donald Trump ratcheted up an increasingly hostile feud with the media, announcing he will skip a century-old annual correspondents’ dinner a day after a fierce row erupted over press access to the White House. The Trump White House triggered widespread outrage on Friday by denying access to an off-camera briefing to several major US … Read more
More than 30 foreign-owned shops were looted last night in two neighbourhoods in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, a police spokesman was quoted by the local TimesLive news site as saying. Bongi Msimango said: “The looting started in Atteridgeville and spread to the neighbouring Lotus Gardens. Police managed to control the situation and there were no … Read more
More than 30 foreign-owned shops were looted last night in two neighbourhoods in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, a police spokesman was quoted by the local TimesLive news site as saying. Bongi Msimango said: The looting started in Atteridgeville and spread to the neighbouring Lotus Gardens. Police managed to control the situation and there were no … Read more
Milo Yiannopoulos, a firebrand editor of right-wing news site Breitbart, has lost a book deal and a speaking engagement over comments in which he seems to condone pedophilia. The rightwing provocateur and staunch fan of President Donald Trump is no stranger to controversy: he was banned from Twitter for provoking online harassment of black actress … Read more
Blackberry wants Nokia to pay to use some of its data transmission patents Blackberry is suing Nokia over claims that the Finnish company has made use of nearly a dozen of its inventions without permission. The patent infringement allegations concern data transmission technologies involved in 4G and other types of mobile networks. The Canadian firm … Read more
Portuguese prosecutors are bringing charges of corruption, money-laundering and forgery against Angolan Vice-president Manuel Vicente as part of an investigation in Lisbon, Portugal’s attorney general’s office told AP news agency. Mr Vicente is suspected of bribing a Portuguese magistrate to favour him in two investigations, a statement said. Investigators allege Mr Vicente paid Portuguese magistrate … Read more
Morocco’s Interior Ministry filed a lawsuit against the accusations of the Secretary-General of the Independent Party (PI), Hamid Chabat, that the “deep state” murdered two politicians. In an article shared in the PI’s official website that stirred controversy in Morocco, the state was accused of orchestrating the assassination of two prominent politicians, Ahmed Zaidi and … Read more
Two men who ran a betting website connected to the Fifa video game have pleaded guilty to offences under the UK’s Gambling Act. Craig Douglas, a prominent gamer known as Nepenthez, and his business partner Dylan Rigby ran a website that let video gamers gamble virtual currency. Douglas promoted the website to fans of his … Read more