Author: News Desk

North Korea on Thursday called Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe an “idiot and villain” who should not even dream of setting foot in Pyongyang, in a media commentary laden with insults in response to his criticism of a North Korean weapons test. North Korea tested what it called “super-large multiple rocket launchers” on Oct. 31, but Japan said they were likely ballistic missiles that violated U.N. sanctions. Abe condemned the test at an Asian summit this week, while saying he was eager to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “without conditions” to resolve the issue of Japanese nationals abducted…

After initially naming only one ship, Brazilian authorities have added four more tankers as suspects in the investigation into the source of oil tarring its coastline over the past two months, according to a document on Wednesday. Brazilian investigators said last week that a Greek-flagged tanker named Bouboulina and owned by Delta Tankers Ltd was a suspect as the possible cause of the oil spill. Delta denied responsibility, saying the vessel arrived to its destination without losing any fuel or part of the cargo. On Wednesday, Delta Tankers said in a statement that it had been notified of the investigation.…

As India prepares to install a nationwide facial recognition system in an effort to catch criminals and find missing children, human rights and technology experts on Thursday warned of the risks to privacy from increased surveillance. Use of the camera technology is an effort in “modernising the police force, information gathering, criminal identification, verification”, according to India’s national crime bureau. Likely to be among the world’s biggest facial recognition systems, the government contract is due to be awarded on Friday. But there is little information on where it will be deployed, what the data will be used for and how…

Uber said it “will likely” have to strike a licensing deal with Waymo or opt for costly changes to its autonomous driving software after an expert found the ride-hailing giant still used technology from the Alphabet Inc unit. While it was unclear by when the company needed to decide on its next move in the blockbuster trade secrets dispute, Uber, in a quarterly securities filing on Tuesday, said that a detour in its software development “could limit or delay our production of autonomous vehicle technologies.” Uber has been racing to catch up to Waymo in the development of software and hardware to…

Hong Kong students, many wearing banned black masks, chanted slogans at their graduation at the Chinese University on Thursday, with some holding up banners urging “Free Hong Kong, Revolution Now”. The students defied a ban on masks that the government imposed last month in a bid to curb sometimes violent unrest that has rocked the Chinese-ruled city for more than five months. Dressed in formal graduation gowns, many of about 1,000 students chanted as they walked to the hill-top ceremony, near the New Territories town of Sha Tin, calling for the government to respond to protesters’ “five demands, not one…

U.S. congressional committees conducting an impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump are due to hear for the first time on Thursday from a top adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, one of the last witnesses to testify behind closed doors before public hearings start next week. The House of Representatives Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight committees have called Jennifer Williams, a career foreign service officer and special adviser to Pence for Europe and Russia, to testify behind closed doors on Thursday morning. Lawmakers will look to Williams for information about how much Pence knew about efforts by Trump and those…

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday the United States was not fulfilling its pledge to remove a Kurdish militia from a Syrian border region and he will raise the issue when he meets President Donald Trump next week. A month ago, Turkey launched a cross-border offensive with Syrian rebels against Kurdish YPG fighters. After seizing control of a 120-km (75-mile) swathe of territory, it reached a deal with the United States to keep them out of that area. Erdogan is set to discuss implementation of the agreement with Trump in Washington on Nov. 13, after confirming that the visit…

This puppy got his happy ending after all. While photographing the aftermath from last week’s raid on Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi — which resulted in his death — Syrian photojournalist Fared Alhor stumbled across a puppy who appeared to be in distress. “I turned around and, accidentally, I saw a puppy standing next to his mom,” Alhor, who posted photos on his Twitter account which showed the young pup standing near the body of its mother, who did not survive, told. “He was howling and sounded sad.” After playing with the puppy in an effort to help him feel better, Alhor enquired…

The chorus of Bronx cheers from New York officials at the news that President Donald Trump changed his primary residence to Florida was confirmation of what friends and advisers have said for months: Resuming his former life in Manhattan would be impossible. But Trump’s decision to shift his home base to his resort in Palm Beach, which a person close to the president said was primarily to escape New York taxes, also comes at a time when the president has been disengaged from daily operations at the Trump Organization, which he once ran from Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. Trump…

Donald Trump a Florida man? Not so fast. Despite a stinging “good riddance” tweet from New York’s governor, the president’s home state may not let him go to Florida without a fight. Trump’s plan to shift his permanent residence to Palm Beach will likely be heavily scrutinized by New York state officials, who are notorious for auditing wealthy residents seeking to flee to lower-tax states to make sure such moves are real and not just on paper. Those cases can go on for years. “New York says just because you fill out a piece of paper, that doesn’t make you…