Technology

BRUSSELS: The European Union and Britain launched parallel competition probes on Friday into whether Facebook uses data from advertisers to unfairly dominate the online classified market. The US social media behemoth sells classified advertising on its Marketplace service, but also gathers data from commercial advertising that may give it an unfair advantage _ a charge the firm declared “without merit”. …

Apple Inc is working on a new iPad Pro with wireless charging and a redesigned iPad Mini in an attempt to build upon momentum for a category that saw improved sales during the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. The company is looking to release the new iPad Pro in 2022 and the iPad Mini later this year, the report …

Bitcoin slipped 4% on Friday after Tesla boss Elon Musk was at it again – this time firing off a few tweets that appeared to lament a breakup with the cryptocurrency. Tesla’s big position in bitcoin and Musk’s large personal following often set crypto markets on edge whenever he tweets, and the price fell after he posted “#Bitcoin”, a broken-heart …

Britain’s Heathrow Airport will use sustainable jet fuel for the first time as part of a test ahead of a Group of Seven (G7) rich nations summit in the country next week. The fuel, produced by Finland’s Neste and supplied by oil trader Vitol, is made entirely of renewable and sustainable waste such as cooking oil and animal fat, the …

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has allowed the mobile phone operators to restore internet services in several areas of Balochistan and Khyber district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as the security situation has improved there. After review of security situation by the departments concerned, the ministry of interior has cleared Turbat city, Kech, Awaran, Panjgur, Washuk and Kalat along the highways …

PARIS: The French government on Wednesday announced plans to set up an agency to combat foreign disinformation and fake news that aims to “undermine the state”. The move comes as France begins preparing for a presidential election in under a year’s time. During the last such election in 2012, groups linked to Russia were blamed for a massive hacking attack …

China has set a new world record after scientists managed to run their nuclear-powered ‘artificial sun’ at a very high temperature for more than 100 seconds. According to state media reports, China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) has set a new record in the latest experiment, where it achieved a plasma temperature of 216 million Fahrenheit (120 million C) for …

CD Projekt reported on Monday that its profit fell by more than half in the first quarter from a year earlier as its flagship game, “Cyberpunk 2077,” was kept off Sony’s PlayStation Store, which a company official said will continue to impact results. “Cyberpunk 2077,” featuring Hollywood star Keanu Reeves, was one of the most anticipated games last year. It …

COVID-19 survivors with lingering symptoms can safely be vaccinated against the coronavirus, a small study suggests. Researchers tracked 36 individuals with “long COVID” who had been hospitalized while acutely ill and who later received at least one dose of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or AstraZeneca vaccine. Eight months after admission to the hospital, and before vaccination, participants had at least one lingering …

SHENZHEN: China on Sat­­­­u­­­­­r­­day successfully laun­ched an automated cargo resupply spacecraft to rendezvous with an orbiting module, in the second of a series of missions needed to complete its first permanent space station. The Tianzhou-2, or “Heav­enly Vessel” in Chinese, bla­sted off via a Long March-7 Y3 rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre on the southern island of Hainan, …