Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — A Hebrew Bible more than 1,000 years old sold for $38.1 million in New York on Wednesday, setting a record for the most valuable manuscript ever sold at auction. The Codex Sassoon — which dates to the late ninth to early 10th century — is the earliest near-complete Hebrew Bible known to still exist. It was sold by Sotheby’s following a four-minute bidding battle between two bidders, the auction […]
GENEVA, May 17, 2023 (AFP) – It is near-certain that 2023-2027 will be the warmest five-year period ever recorded, the United Nations warned Wednesday as greenhouse gases and El Nino combine to send temperatures soaring. There is a two-thirds chance that at least one of the next five years will see global temperatures exceed the more ambitious target set out in the Paris accords on limiting climate change, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said. […]
By Paavan MATHEMA KATHMANDU, May 17, 2023 (AFP) – Nepali climber Kami Rita Sherpa reached the top of Mount Everest for the 27th time on Wednesday, reclaiming the record for the most summits of the world’s highest mountain. “He successfully reached the summit this morning guiding a Vietnamese climber,” Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks, his expedition organiser, told AFP. Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 10 highest peaks, including the 8,849-metre (29,032-foot) […]
By Valentin BONTEMPS Agence France-Presse DOÑANA NATIONAL PARK, Spain, May 17, 2023 (AFP) – Concern over the future of Spain’s Donana natural park, which is threatened by overfarming, has made water management a key issue ahead of local elections at the end of May. Spain’s water resources are becoming exhausted while its irrigation needs keep rising, “an unsustainable situation”, said Felipe Fuentelsaz of WWF Spain. The Donana National Park in the southern Andalusia region, home […]
By Issam AHMED Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, May 16, 2023 (AFP) – In a first, US climate scientists have quantified the extent to which greenhouse gasses from the world’s top fossil fuel companies have contributed to wildfires. Their analysis, published Tuesday in Environmental Research Letters, found that carbon dioxide and methane emissions from the so-called “Big 88” firms were responsible for more than a third of the area scorched by forest blazes in western North […]
By Patrick Lee with Dessy Sagita in Jakarta AMPANG, Malaysia (AFP) – In a Malaysian boutique, a small group of seamstresses sit at clattering sewing machines, stitching bright flowers and leaves into kebayas, traditional blouses worn by women around Southeast Asia. What makes kebayas special is that they are worn by women of all ethnic backgrounds in a diverse region, according to Lim Yu Lin, who co-runs the family business her grandmother founded in 1955. […]
NEW YORK, May 14, 2023 (AFP) – As people brace for the disruptive impact of artificial intelligence on jobs and everyday living, those in the world of audio books say their field is already being transformed. AI has the ability to create human-sounding recordings — at assembly-line speed — while bypassing at least part of the services of the human professionals who for years have made a living with their voices. Many of them are […]
TOKYO (AFP) – A six-year wait came to an end for “Zelda” fans across the world on Friday as Nintendo released the long-awaited next instalment of its 40-year-old gaming saga. Gamers began lining up outside a shop in Paris well before midnight, determined to get their hands on “Tears of the Kingdom” the minute it became available. “I’m going crazy actually, because it’s been six years that we’ve been waiting for this game,” 19-year-old Taylor […]
UITO, May 12, 2023 (AFP) – Darwin’s flycatcher, a small bird with striking vermilion plumage, is making modest but noticeable headway on the Galapagos Islands in its battle back from near extinction, the remote archipelago’s national park said Thursday. The only 15 remaining pairs of the charismatic birds on the island of Santa Cruz have produced 12 chicks this year, the park said. The species is endemic to the Galapagos, and is considered vulnerable by […]
PARIS, May 12, 2023 (AFP) – Astronomers said on Friday they have identified the “largest” cosmic explosion ever observed, a fireball 100 times the size of our Solar System that suddenly began blazing in the distant universe more than three years ago. While the astronomers offered what they think is the most likely explanation for the explosion, they emphasised that more research was needed to understand the puzzling phenomenon. The explosion, called AT2021lwx, is not […]
SAN FRANCISCO, May 11, 2023 (AFP) – Elon Musk on Thursday said that he has hired someone to replace him as boss of Twitter and its newly named X Corporation parent. “Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter,” Musk said in a tweet, adding that she would start in the job in about six weeks. Twitter users in December voted to oust owner Musk as chief executive in an unscientific […]
MOUNTAIN VIEW, United States(AFP) – Google on Wednesday said it is opening Bard, a rival to Microsoft-backed ChatGPT, to 180 countries as it expands use of artificial intelligence across its platform. Executives at an annual Google developers conference in Silicon Valley said that generative AI will also be used to supercharge the tech giant’s leading search engine. “We have been applying AI for a while, with generative AI we are taking the next step,” Google […]
