I GLOBAL NEWZ

Kem Sokha said 2017 was marked by big political crises that led to a “democracy walked backward.” (AP Photo) Cambodia’s detained opposition leader Kem Sokha called for free and fair elections in the Southeast Asian country in a New Year’s message on Monday. Kem Sokha, head of the banned opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was arrested in September. He is accused of trying to overthrow the government of strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen with American help and of espionage – charges he denies and says are politically motivated. In a two-page letter read by his daughter Kem Monovithya and posted on  Facebook  on Monday, Kem Sokha said Cambodia faces losing aid and its export markets abroad as well as condemnation by the international community after the CNRP’s dissolution. “Leave an opportunity for people to choose leadership representatives through an election that is free and fair,” Kem Sokha said, calling for national unity and non-violence to solve the polit

Sophia, a lifelike robot and the first one to be granted citizenship of a country, made its first appearance in India at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) on Saturday, during its cultural extravaganza, TechFest. Draped in a sari, the humanoid robot had a 15-minute conversation with a student in front of an audience of more than 3,000, on topics ranging from artificial intelligence to the issues facing the world. However, after answering a few initial questions, Sophia went silent due to an unexplained technical snag. It started functioning again after the organisers intervened. Known for its human-like appearance and behaviour, Sophia was developed by Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics and activated in 2015. Using artificial intelligence, it imitates human gestures and facial expressions, and is able to make conversation on predefined topics.The robot was granted citizenship of Saudi Arabia in October. The presence of Sophia had created much buzz among stude

Washington: NASA is turning 60 in 2018 and the agency is looking forward to launching a slew of important missions in the coming year, including one to "touch" the Sun. NASA's Parker Solar Probe is scheduled for launch in 2018 to explore the Sun's outer atmosphere The probe will use Venus' gravity during seven flybys over nearly seven years to gradually bring its orbit closer to the Sun, according to a NASA statement. The spacecraft will fly through the Sun's atmosphere as close as 6.2 million kilometres to our star's surface, well within the orbit of Mercury and closer than any spacecraft has gone before. The Parker Solar Probe will perform its scientific investigations in a hazardous region of intense heat and solar radiation. The primary science goals for the mission are to trace how energy and heat move through the solar corona and to explore what accelerates the solar wind as well as solar energetic particles. In 2018, NASA

Fire seen at the site where a plane crashed in the mountainous area of Punta Islita, in the province of Guanacaste, in Costa Rica December 31, 2017 in this picture obtained from social media.   | Photo Credit:  REUTERS Nature Air charter flight that took off just from Punta Islita and was headed for the capital of San Jose when it crashed. A plane carrying 10 US citizens and two local crew-members crashed in a wooded area, killing all aboard, Costa Rica’s government said. The Public Safety Ministry posted photographs and video of the crash site showing burning wreckage of the plane in Guanacaste, northwest  Costa Rica. Authorities said on Sundayy evening that so far they had only a list of passengers provided by the airline and were awaiting official confirmation of their identities. A family in the suburbs of New York City said five of the dead Americans were relatives on vacation. They identified them as Bruce and Irene Steinberg and their sons Matthew, William

People were expressing their anger on social media for being unable to wish and greet their friends and families for New Year(Reuters) WhatsApp users across the globe experienced a brief outage on Monday as the wold brought in the New Year amid celebrations and greetings. A spokesperson of the messaging platforms said the issue had been resolved shortly after the outage. “We apologise for the inconvenience,” the WhatsApp spokesperson said. Users earlier reported WhatsApp had gone down in India and several other parts of the world. People were expressing their anger on social media for being unable to wish and greet their friends and families for New Year. The outage began just around the midnight, according to several users on Twitter. WhatsApp had faced similar outage in 2015 on the New Year’s Eve. Downdetector.in, a website that tracks outages of internet services, reported a big spike in number of outages around midnight. According to its Live Outage Maps

South Koreans watch a TV news program showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s New Year’s address, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, January 1, 2018 (AP) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Monday the United States should be aware that his country’s nuclear forces are now a reality, not a threat. But he also struck a conciliatory tone in his annual New Year’s address, wishing success for the Winter Olympics set to begin in the South in February and suggesting the North may send a delegation to participate. Kim, wearing a Western-style gray suit and tie, said in his annual New Year’s Day address his country had achieved the historic feat of “completing” its nuclear forces and added he has a nuclear button on his desk. “The US should know that the button for nuclear weapons is on my table,” he said during the speech, as provisionally translated by the AP. The official transcript of his address was expected to be released shortly. “The entire area of

US President Donald Trump (Reuters file photo) US President Donald Trump has slammed the Iranian government for shutting down the internet amdist country-wide protests against it. “Iran, the Number One State of Sponsored Terror with numerous violations of Human Rights occurring on an hourly basis, has now closed down the Internet so that peaceful demonstrators cannot communicate. Not good!” Trump tweeted last evening. Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump Iran, the Number One State of Sponsored Terror with numerous violations of Human Rights occurring on an hourly basis, has now closed down the Internet so that peaceful demonstrators cannot communicate. Not good! 3:30 AM - Jan 1, 2018   11,221 11,221 Replies     21,107 21,107 Retweets   63,102 63,102 likes Twitter Ads info and privacy Earlier in the day, in a separate tweet, Trump said the US is watching “very closely” for human rights violations in Iran in wake of the protests

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny (File/AP Photo) Russia’s highest court has upheld election officials’ decision to bar opposition leader Alexei Navalny from running for president in March’s election. The Supreme Court on Saturday turned down Navalny’s appeal against the Central Election Commission’s move, saying that the decision to bar him from the race fully conforms to law. President Vladimir Putin, whose approval ratings top 80 per cent, is set to easily win a fourth term in the March 18 vote. Navalny has campaigned for the presidency all year despite an implicit ban on his candidacy due to a fraud conviction was seen by many as politically driven. Election officials formally barred him from the ballot Monday. Navalny responded to the ban by calling for a boycott of the vote. The Kremlin said authorities will look into whether such a call violates the law.

One of British Prime Minister Theresa May’s key advisers, Lord Andrew Adonis, has announced he is quitting his role, describing Brexit as a “populist and nationalist spasm”. Adonis, who was appointed as her infrastructure adviser in 2015, said May was “pursuing a course fraught with danger” over the UK’s EU departure, the BBC reported. Lord Andrew Adonis, later insisted it had been his decision to leave, as his “differences with the government had become too great”. (Photo: Reuters) The one-time Secretary of State in Tony Blair’s Labour government resigned as chair of the National Infrastructure Commission. He was already a high-profile campaigner against Brexit. A government source said: “He’s been moving closer towards the exit door with each new onslaught he makes against Brexit. He’s now walked through the door before he was pushed.” Adonis later insisted it had been his decision to leave, as his “differences with the government had become too great”. In his letter to

North Korea conducted its most powerful nuclear test to date in September and launched three intercontinental ballistic missiles into the sea in July and November, indicating that it is closer than ever to gaining a nuclear arsenal that could viably target the mainland United States. (Photo: Reuters) North Korea on Saturday said that it will never give up its nuclear weapons as long as the United States and its allies continue their “blackmail and war drills” at its doorstep. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency took the oft-repeated stance as it reviewed the country’s major nuclear weapons and missile tests this year. North Korea conducted its most powerful nuclear test to date in September and launched three intercontinental ballistic missiles into the sea in July and November, indicating that it is closer than ever to gaining a nuclear arsenal that could viably target the mainland United States. The aggressive tests have led to more international sanctions and p

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump. (Source: File/ AP photo) In a New Year telegram to US President Donald Trump, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said a constructive dialogue between the two nations is essential for global stability. The Kremlin said Saturday that Putin emphasized in his Seasons Greetings to Trump that Russia and the US could develop a “pragmatic cooperation aimed at long-term perspective” on the basis of “equality and mutual respect.” Putin noted that “the development a constructive Russian-US dialogue is particularly important for strengthening strategic stability in the world and finding the optimal answers to global threats and challenges.” Ties between Moscow and Washington sank to a post-Cold War low following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the allegations of its meddling in the US presidential election last year.

Russia has reported an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N2 bird flu on a farm in the Kostromskaya Oblast region, the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Friday. The disease was detected on December 17 and led to the culling of more than 660,000 birds, the OIE said, citing a report from the Russian ministry of agriculture. It did not specify the type of birds that were infected

This ban is likely to irk solo mountaineers, who enjoy the challenge of climbing alone. In a bid to prevent accidents, Nepal has banned solo climbers from climbing its mountains, including Mount Everest, reported news agency AFP. Earlier on Friday, the cabinet declared revised regulations of the Himalayan nation’s mountaineering, where banning solo climbers from scaling its mountains was one of the key measures being flagged ahead of the 2018 spring climbing season. The cabinet also declared a ban on double amputee and blind climbers, even though Everest has drawn multitudes of mountaineers wanting to overcome their disabilities and achieve the formidable feat. “The changes have barred solo expeditions, which were allowed before,” Maheshwor Neupane, secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, told AFP. Neupane added that the law was revised to make mountaineering safer and decrease deaths. Earlier in April this year, an experienced Swiss climber Ueli

The project which is called Azad Pattan Hydropower Project is an initiative undertaken by the government under the Policy for Power Generation 2002. (Representational photo) A new hydropower project with an estimated cost of $1.51 billion is being set up by the Pakistan government on the banks of river Jhelum in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The project is expected to be complete by 2022 with the help of foreign funds, the Express Tribune reported. The project which is called Azad Pattan Hydropower Project is an initiative undertaken by the government under the Policy for Power Generation 2002, according to the documents with Pakistan’s central power board National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA). “Hydropower contributes about 16% of global electricity and Pakistan has 28% hydropower in its energy mix. The declining trend in hydropower over the years has been caused by rapidly growing thermal capacity compared with hydropower growth and hydropower, which now

FILE – In this Dec. 15, 2017, file photo, U.S. special envoy for North Korea policy Joseph Yun speaks to media in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP photo) In the first month of Donald Trump’s presidency, an American scholar quietly met with North Korean officials and relayed a message: The new administration in Washington appreciated an extended halt in the North’s nuclear and ballistic missile tests. It might just offer a ray of hope. North Korean officials responded defiantly. The nearly four-month period of quiet wasn’t a sign of conciliation, they retorted, insisting supreme leader Kim Jong Un would order tests whenever he wanted. As if to ram the point home, North Korea only two days later launched a new type of medium-range missile that ended Trump’s brief honeymoon. The February launch heralded a year of escalating tensions that have left the US and North Korea closer to hostilities than at any time since the Korean War ended in 1953. The North is now at the brink of realizing