Technology

Most children and adolescents are spared from severe COVID-19, but among those who do require hospitalization, temporary neurologic effects are common, researchers found. In their study of 1,695 patients age 21 or younger hospitalized for COVID-19 or a COVID-19-related illness known as multisystem inflammatory syndrome, 365 – or 22% – had neurologic complications, including 43 (12%) with life-threatening neurologic disorders …

A coronavirus variant circulating in Brazil is likely able to reinfect people who survived infections with earlier versions of the coronavirus, new data suggest. The variant that emerged in Brazil, called P.1, carries a mutation that is already known to make a variant prevalent in South Africa harder to treat with antibodies and harder to prevent with available vaccines. New …

LAHORE: WhatsApp has announced that it has made private and secure one-to-one voice and video calls available on its desktop app. According to a blog on WhatsApp’s official website, the company says: “Throughout the last year we’ve seen significant increases in people calling one another on WhatsApp, often for long conversations. Last New Year’s Eve, we broke the record for …

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) signed a contract with a consortium on Friday to operationalise the ‘Track & Trace Solution’ on tobacco, cement, sugar and fertiliser sectors from July 1, aimed at accelerating digitisation of economic activity, improving revenue forecasting and curbing counterfeit products in the market. The FBR said that 45 million tonnes of cement, over four …

NEW YORK: The rollercoster ride in bitcoin since the start of the year has not dampened wealth manager Jim Paulsen’s enthusiasm for the cryptocurrency. BlackRock Inc, the world’s largest asset manager, said on Jan. 21 it was adding bitcoin futures as eligible investments for certain funds. Fund experts expect other asset management firms to follow su Yet the U.S. Securities …

The third time appeared to be the charm for Elon Musk’s Starship rocket – until it wasn’t. The latest heavy-duty launch vehicle prototype from SpaceX soared flawlessly into the sky in a high-altitude test blast-off on Wednesday from Boca Chica, Texas, then flew itself back to Earth to achieve the first upright landing for a Starship model. But the triumph …

Armed Myanmar soldiers and police are using TikTok to deliver death threats to protesters against last month’s coup, researchers said, prompting the Chinese video-sharing app to announce it was removing content that incites violence. Digital rights group Myanmar ICT for Development (Mido) said it had found over 800 pro-military videos that menaced protesters at a time of increasing bloodshed — …

DOHA: In a bid to provide information about the country’s labour laws to employers and expatriate workers, Qatar’s government has introduced a multilingual WhatsApp service. According to the Government Communications Office (GCO), a multilingual WhatsApp service is available of cost. It provides up-to-date information for employers and expatriate workers about their rights and labour codes. It also offers information on …

The third time appeared to be the charm for Elon Musk’s Starship rocket — until it wasn’t. The latest heavy-duty launch vehicle prototype from SpaceX soared flawlessly into the sky in a high-altitude test blast-off on Wednesday from Boca Chica, Texas, then flew itself back to Earth to achieve the first upright landing for a Starship model. But the triumph …

A company, Orbital Assembly Corporation (OAC), is all set to begin the construction of the first-ever Voyager space hotel in 2025 to open it for guests by 2027 that will have Earth-viewing lounges and other services with accommodation for 400 people. The company has planned to open the Voyager space hotel to guests by 2027 by offering them hotel services …