TECH NEWS

Beijing, China | AFP |  Twitter’s manager for China, whose appointment just eight months ago sparked controversy, has announced her resignation but welcomed the growing number of Chinese advertisers even though the service is blocked by Beijing. Kathy Chen, appointed in April as general manager for the China region comprising …

Islamabad, Pakistan | AFP |  China’s State Grid Corporation is set to build a $1.5-billion power line across Pakistan to enable the transmission of 4,000 megawatts of electricity from the country’s north to south, the government said Friday. Pakistani and Chinese officials signed an investment agreement in Beijing on Thursday …

Washington, United States | AFP |  Russian intelligence agencies over the last two years blanketed Democratic Party targets with malicious emails and have likely continued such efforts after November’s elections, a US federal law enforcement report showed Thursday. The report’s release coincided with an array of measures unveiled by Washington …

Tennis: Serena announces engagement to Reddit co-founder Washington, United States | AFP | Tennis superstar Serena Williams announced Thursday she is engaged to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, breaking the news with a poem on her verified Reddit account. Williams, 35, and Ohanian, 33, did not reveal a wedding date in …

Peking, China | AFP | An aircraft carrier in the Pacific and a newly upgraded combat aircraft: China’s military is showing off its newest equipment less than a month before the swearing-in of US President-elect Donald Trump, who has raised tensions between Beijing and Taipei. In recent days state media …

Washington, United States | AFP |  The past year was a big one for Donald Trump, but also for Pokemon Go. According to Google’s global trends report released Wednesday, the augmented reality game from Nintendo was the most-searched item online in 2016. Trump was number three among the most-searched topics …

Washington, United States | AFP |  President Barack Obama’s administration is poised to announce a series of retaliatory measures against Russia over its cyber-meddling in the US election, reports said Wednesday. Obama has all but accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of personally ordering an audacious cyber hack that many Democrats …

  Washington, United States | AFP |  The Washington Post, purchased three years ago by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, will turn a profit in 2016 and expand its newsroom, defying the downward trend in the newspaper industry. A memo to staff this month from Post publisher Fred Ryan, obtained by …

Smartphone-obsessed Finns rank tops in screen time Helsinki, Finland | AFP | On the crowded morning metro in Helsinki, silence prevails. Everyone is hunched over their smartphone screens, reading the news, checking emails or watching videos. A loud “yeah!” breaks the quiet, along with delighted screech from a toddler whose …

Enjoy driving your car while you can. Enjoy using a manual gearshift yourself while you can… because the future of driving is likely to be boring. Apologies for acting the merchant of doom, but it’s true; the future of driving is likely to be one of the most boring, unenjoyable …