Search

Author: AFP

YouTube to block comments on most videos showing minors

YouTube said it will disable user comments on a broad array of videos featuring children to thwart “predatory behaviour” after revelations about a glitch exploited for sharing of child pornography. The Google-owned video sharing service announced further steps to crack down on inappropriate comments a week after an investigation showing

Facebook says ‘clear history’ feature ready this year

Facebook’s feature allowing users to erase all their data is set to be released this year, many months after it was announced by the leading social network. David Wehner, Facebook’s chief financial officer, said in comments at a Morgan Stanley technology conference that the company is planning to roll out

TikTok app fined in US for illegally gathering children’s data

The fast-growing, Chinese-owned video sharing network TikTok agreed to pay a US$5.7 million fine to US authorities to settle charges that it illegally collected personal information from children, officials said. The Federal Trade Commission said the penalty by the social network which had been known as Musical.ly was the largest

Underdog phone makers try to escape shadow of giants at top fair

Vestel, Noa, Lesia… you have probably never heard of these smartphone brands but they are all taking part in the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the mobile industry’s biggest annual global event. While the glitzy stands of mobile giants like Samsung and Huawei hog the spotlight of the event’s vast

No sub-two hour marathon before 2032, study says

SYDNEY: An elusive sub-two hour marathon will finally be run in 2032, but women are unlikely to ever breach the magical mark, according to modelling released by scientists yesterday. The 42.195 kilometres (26.219 miles) race was one of the original Olympic events in 1896, and runners have been edging closer

Rare oarfish, seen as harbingers of doom, snagged in Japan

TOKYO : Two rare oarfish, giant deep-sea serpents long believed by locals to be a harbinger of earthquakes and tsunamis, have been caught off the Japanese island of Okinawa. Fishermen were stunned to find a pair of the silvery fish – the bigger one measuring four metres (13 feet) –

France urged by group to halt use of riot guns

STRASBOURG: The Council of Europe rights group on Tuesday urged France to halt the use of rubber bullet launchers blamed for dozens of injuries to anti-government protesters in recent weeks. France is one of few European nations to use so-called defence ball launchers, known by the French abbreviation LBDs, which

California town to pay $21m to wrongly convicted man

LOS ANGELES: A California man who spent 39 years behind bars after wrongfully being convicted for the murder of his ex-girlfriend and her four-year-old son has reached a $21 million settlement in the case, authorities said. Craig Coley, 71, was convicted of the 1978  murder of Rhonda Wicht, 24, and

Judge orders extradition of man in French fraud probe

LONDON: A British judge on Tuesday ordered the extradition of a Franco-Algerian businessman wanted in France as part of a probe into alleged Libyan financing of former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign. “I order your extradition to France,” judge Vanessa Baraitser told Alexandre Djouhri at Westminster Magistrates Court in London.

Post-rock pioneer Mark Hollis of Talk Talk dies

NEW YORK: Music industry figures paid tribute Monday to Mark Hollis, the “genius” frontman of the British new wave group Talk Talk, after a former bandmate announced that the singer had died aged 64. “I am very shocked and saddened to hear the news of the passing of Mark Hollis,”