Technology

WELLINGTON: New Zealand promised its public sector would become carbon neutral by 2025 as it declared a climate emergency on Wednesday, a symbolic move that critics said needed to be backed with greater actions to reduce emissions. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the climate emergency declaration was based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s findings that to avoid more …

BEIJING: China successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon’s surface on Tuesday in a historic mission to retrieve lunar surface samples. China launched its Chang’e-5 probe on Nov 24. The uncrewed mission, named after the mythical Chinese goddess of the moon, aims to collect lunar material to help scientists learn more about the moon’s origins. The mission will attempt to …

SYDNEY: Twitter on Tuesday rebuffed Australian calls to remove a Beijing official’s incendiary tweet targeting Australian troops, as China doubled down on criticism in the face of mounting international condemnation. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian sparked outrage in Canberra on Monday when he posted a staged image of a man dressed as an Australian soldier holding a bloody knife …

SEOUL: Samsung Electronics may discontinue its premium Galaxy Note phone next year, sources with knowledge of the matter said, a move that would reflect the sharp drop in demand for high-end smartphones due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Galaxy Note, known for its large screen and a stylus for note-taking, is one of two Samsung premium phone series – the …

OTTAWA: Canada plans to impose a tax on corporations providing digital services from 2022 that will stay in place until major nations come up with a coordinated approach on taxation, the Finance Department said on Monday. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development is working on a common approach to ensure digital behemoths, such as Alphabet’s Google and Facebook, pay …

FRANKFURT: Pfizer and BioNTech have applied to the European drugs regulator for conditional authorization of their COVID-19 vaccine, following similar steps in the United States and Britain, the companies said on Tuesday. The application to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) comes after the companies applied for U.S. approval on Nov. 20, taking them a step closer to launching their vaccine. …

Two remote-controlled race cars will be landed on the lunar surface which will be driven by high school students for the first-ever race on Moon in 2021. Moon Mark, an entertainment and education company, is sponsoring the race that will see teams of students compete to design and drive one of two racers. The winning teams will then work with …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Customs has collected Rs54 billion in the last year on import of mobile devices through Device Identifica­tion, Registration and Blocking System (DIRBs), which is 145 per cent higher over the preceding year. The data released by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) showed that the increase in revenue from mobile phone import is due to the fact that …

GENEVA: Swiss politicians have voiced outrage and demanded an investigation after revelations that a second Swiss encryption company was allegedly used by the CIA and its German counterpart to spy on governments worldwide. “How can such a thing happen in a country that claims to be neutral like Switzerland?” the co-head of Switzerland’s Socialist Party, Cedric Wermuth, asked in an …

ISLAMABAD: As the second wave of coronavirus continues to gain momentum in the country, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) was informed on Friday that more than 3,000 cases were recorded for the third consecutive day, with the highest rate of positive cases reported in Peshawar. Meanwhile, in a bid to contain panic in the country, the electronic media …