Technology

LONDON: Britain on Thursday said it would partner with an Oxford-based firm to provide testing for the T cell response of coronavirus vaccine candidates to try to assess their immune responses. T cell immunity is thought to be essential to protection against infection from the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus, and could provide longer term immunity than antibodies. The UK Vaccine Taskforce has …

SEOUL: South Korea’s LG Display on Thursday reported a profit for July-September, ending a six-quarter run of loss, helped by shipments for Apple’s new iPhone and stay-at-home trends boosting panel demand for TVs and laptops. LG Display expects rising panel shipments and sales in the current quarter as well and suggested it has pushed back plans to phase out all …

WASHINGTON: After a four-year journey, Nasa’s robotic spacecraft Osiris-Rex briefly touched down on asteroid Bennu’s boulder-strewn surface on Tuesday to collect rock and dust samples in a precision operation 200 million miles (330 million kilometres) from Earth. The so-called “Touch-And-Go” or TAG maneuver was managed by Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, Colorado, where at 6:12pm an announcer said: “Touchdown declared. …

WASHINGTON: The US government filed a blockbuster lawsuit on Tuesday accusing Google of maintaining an “illegal monopoly” in online search and advertising in the country’s biggest antitrust case in decades — and opening the door to a potential breakup of the Silicon Valley titan. The politically-charged case, which could take years to play out, draws new battle lines between the …

STOCKHOLM: Sweden has banned telecoms equipment from Huawei and ZTE in its 5G network, joining other European nations that have restricted the role of Chinese suppliers on security grounds. Telecoms regulator PTS said Tuesday’s decision, ahead of a spectrum auction due next month, followed advice from the country’s armed forces and security service, which described China as “one of the …

China has welcomed Pakistan’s decision to lift the ban on the widely popular video-sharing app TikTok. “The government always asks overseas Chinese enterprises to strictly comply with international rules and local laws and regulations, and fully respect local customs and religious beliefs,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian during a regular press briefing on Tuesday. “We are glad to see the …

ISLAMABAD: The Universal Service Fund (USF) on Monday awarded contracts worth Rs5.11 billion to Telenor, Zong, Ufone and PTCL under the Next Generation Broadband for Sustainable Development and Next Generation Optical Fibre Network and Services programs. The USF meeting was chaired by IT Secretary Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui. Under the Next Generation Optical Fiber Network and Services projects, worth approximately Rs3bn, …

ISLAMABAD: After a 10-day hiatus, TikTok services were restored across the country on Monday with certain conditions, as the Pakistan Telecommunica­tion Authority (PTA) war­ned the company that spread of ‘vulgarity’ / ‘indecent’ content and ‘abuse of societal values’ would result in a permanent ban on the app. The ban, which was placed on the short video sharing platform by the telecom …

A total of 120,000 posts on Facebook and Instagram have been withdrawn for attempting to “obstruct voting” in the United States presidential election and 2.2 million ads have been rejected, Facebook’s vice president Nick Clegg said in an interview published on Sunday. In addition, warnings were posted on 150 million examples of false information posted online, the former British deputy prime …

Britain on Monday condemned what it said were attempts by Russian military intelligence to disrupt next year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo with malicious cyberattacks. British officials said Unit 74455 of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency had conducted “cyber reconnaissance” operations against Games organisers, logistics suppliers and sponsors. They declined to give further details about the types of attacks …