WORLD

New York, United States | AFP | McDonald’s announced a plan early this month for a phased reduction of antibiotics in beef, expanding a health-oriented reform to a new meat source other than chicken. The fast-food giant described a three-stage process where it would first undertake a study of its …

Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria | AFP | Austria has something special to celebrate this festive period as it marks 200 years since the first performance of one of the world’s most beloved Christmas carols, “Silent Night”. Celebrations of the anniversary will culminate with a special December 24 performance of “Stille …

Paris, France | AFP | Brain implants, longer lives, genetically modified humans: for the prophets of transhumanism — the scientifically assisted evolution of humans beyond our current limitations — it is just a matter of time. But many scientists insist that some problems are not so easily solved. Sooner or …

Paris, France | AFP | On December 25, 1918 a daring French industrialist launched the world’s first ever airmail service, flying between the southwestern French city of Toulouse and Barcelona in northeastern Spain. It was the beginning of an adventure which would soon see pioneering pilots from the company, best …

Tampa, United States | AFP | The US journal Science on Thursday coined as “Breakthrough of the Year” for 2018 new technologies that reveal how DNA cues individual cells to grow through time. Experts say these methods will transform science over the coming decades, allowing an ever clearer picture of …

Washington, United States | AFP | Americans have got fatter over the past two decades, adding girth to their bellies and even growing fractionally shorter on average, according to federal health data released Thursday. The report gave no specific reasons for the trends, which come as no surprise as the …

Mumbai, India | AFP | An Indian man released last week after being jailed for six years in Pakistan issued advice on Friday not to follow his example and fall in love on Facebook. Hamid Nehal Ansari illegally entered Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2012 to meet a woman he had …

Washington, United States | AFP | Facebook, the world’s largest social network, faces a growing backlash over privacy and data protection, with revelations this week about sharing data with business partners adding to pressure. Here is a summary of the main issues in the Facebook controversy: What are the latest …

Manila, Philippines | AFP | Row upon row of pigs on bamboo spits sizzle slowly over orange embers in Manila just days before Christmas, peak season for the Philippines’ pig roasting “lechoneros”. Smoke rises day and night from their cooking pits in the La Loma area, which brands itself a …

Washington, United States | AFP | The US space agency’s unmanned Mars Insight lander, which touched down on the Red Planet last month, has successfully deployed its key, quake-sensing instrument on the alien world’s surface, NASA said Thursday. The seismometer, known as the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, or SEIS, …