Other News

Rosberg apologizes, disciplined for crash

(Reuters) – Formula One championship leader Nico Rosberg has apologized for colliding with team mate Lewis Hamilton during the Belgian Grand Prix and been disciplined, his Mercedes team said on Friday. Rosberg hit Hamilton on the second lap at Spa on Sunday and the Briton later retired from the race with a damaged floor after picking up a puncture. Hamilton told reporters that Rosberg had admitted in a team meeting to hitting him on purpose […]

IBM launches Watson system for research, hopes for breakthroughs

(Reuters) – International Business Machines Corp on Wednesday launched a computer system that can quickly identify patterns in massive amounts of data, an ability that IBM said should hasten breakthroughs in science and medical research. The computer system, Watson Discovery Advisor, understands chemical compound interaction and human language and can visually map out connections in data, the company said in a statement. IBM will make the service available through the cloud. Some researchers and scientists have already been […]

Florida man caught killing, and eating, threatened tortoises

  (Reuters) – Wildlife authorities in Florida caught a man who killed and ate 15 gopher tortoises and planned to slaughter 11 more of the threatened reptiles, a spokeswoman said on Thursday. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said a tip-off led an officer to woods in Citrus County on Florida’s west coast where he found tire tracks and shells dumped on the ground. Returning the next day, he found a container holding 11 […]

UN: 43 Golan peacekeepers seized by Syria militants, 81 Filipinos trapped

(Reuters) – Militants fighting the Syrian army have detained 43 U.N. peacekeepers in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and trapped another 81 in the region, and the world body is working to secure their release, the United Nations said on Thursday. The affected peacekeepers are from the Philippines and Fiji, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters. “During a period of increased fighting beginning yesterday between armed elements and Syrian Arab Armed Forces within the area of […]

Separatists say will allow ‘trapped’ Ukrainian forces to withdraw

(Reuters) – Pro-Moscow rebels fighting in Ukraine said on Friday they would comply with a request from the Kremlin and open up a ‘humanitarian corridor’ to allow the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops they have encircled. It was not clear how the government in Kiev would react to the offer, suggested first by Russian President Vladimir Putin, but the first word from the Ukrainian military was negative. It said in a statement that Putin’s call showed […]

Ebola outbreak reaches Senegal, riots break out in Guinea

(Reuters) – The West African state of Senegal became the fifth country to be touched by the world’s worst Ebola outbreak on Friday, while riots broke out in neighboring Guinea where infection rates are rising fast. The deadly virus has defied efforts by governments to control it, prompting the leading charity fighting the outbreak Medicines Sans Frontiers to call for the U.N. Security Council to take charge of efforts to stop the epidemic. At least […]

Syrian refugees top 3 million, half of all Syrians displaced: U.N.

(Reuters) – Three million Syrian refugees will have registered in neighboring countries as of Friday, an exodus that began in March 2011 and shows no sign of abating, the United Nationssaid. The record figure is one million refugees more than a year ago, while a further 6.5 million are displaced within Syria, meaning that “almost half of all Syrians have now been forced to abandon their homes and flee for their lives”, it said. “The Syrian crisis […]

President Aquino says Filipino peacekeepers in the Golan Heights remain safe

(PUERTO GALERA, ORIENTAL MINDORO) President Benigno S. Aquino III said here Friday that Filipino soldiers serving as United Nations (UN) peacekeepers in the Golan Heights remain safe despite a stand-off with Syrian rebels. “Sa ngayon, bagama’t tense ang sitwasyon ay tila wala naman ho talagang masasabi nating panganib na inuulat sa ating Kagawaran ng Tanggulan,” said President Aquino.The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said in a bulletin issued on Friday that Syrian rebels surrounded […]