Feb32018 by DmediaNo Comments

Former Utah Monument Lands Open to Claims, but No Land Rush in Sight

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The window opened Friday for oil, gas, uranium and coal companies to make requests or stake claims to lands that were cut from two sprawling Utah national monuments by President Trump in December, but there doesn’t appear to be a rush to seize the opportunities. For anyone interested in the uranium on the lands stripped from the Bears Ears National Monument, all they need to do is stake a few corner posts in the ground, pay a $212 initial fee and send paperwork to the federal government under a law first created in 1872 that harkens back to the days of the Wild West. They can then keep rights to the hard minerals, including gold and silver, as long as they pay an annual fee of $155. It was unclear…


Feb32018 by DmediaNo Comments

Britain Buys Into China’s ‘One Belt’ Initiative, but Washington Offers Warning

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Britain has made clear its desire to be part of China's so-called 'One Belt One Road Initiative' — a cornerstone of President Xi Jinping's vision to boost Chinese investment and influence across Asia, Europe and Africa. There are, however, concerns over the financial and humanitarian costs of the vast infrastructure projects being undertaken. As Henry Ridgwell reports, the United States has issued a blunt warning over what it sees as the dangers of being tied to China's huge investment projects. ...


Feb32018 by DmediaNo Comments

Workers Benefiting from Tight Labor Market

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Another solid month for the U.S. economy as American companies added 200,000 new workers to their payrolls last month. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.1 percent, but wages are rising. Although the number of unemployed Americans continues to fall, recruiting agencies say they've never been busier. Mil Arcega explains. ...


Feb32018 by DmediaNo Comments

Suspected Spam King Extradited to US

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Spain has extradited to the United States a Russian citizen who is suspected of being one of the world’s most notorious spammers. Pyotr Levashov, a 37-year-old from St. Petersburg, was arrested in April while vacationing with his family in Barcelona. U.S. authorities had asked for him to be detained on charges of fraud and unauthorized interception of electronic communications. He was scheduled to be arraigned late Friday in a federal courthouse in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where a grand jury indicted him last year. A statement from Spain’s National Police said officers handed Levashov over to U.S. marshals Friday. The extradition was approved in October by Spain’s National Court, which rejected a counter-extradition request from Russia. The Russian Embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Army of botnets Authorities…


Feb22018 by DmediaNo Comments

US Stocks Swoon, Sending Dow Down More Than 650 Points

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U.S. stocks slumped Friday, pulling down the Dow Jones industrial average by more than 650 points and handing the market its worst week in two years. Technology, banks and energy stocks accounted for much of the broad slide. Several major companies, including Exxon Mobil and Google's parent company, Alphabet, sank after reporting weak earnings. Fears of rising inflation sent bond yields higher and contributed to the stock market swoon after the government reported that wages grew last month at the fastest pace in eight years. The sharp drop follows a long period of unprecedented calm in the market. Stocks haven't had a pullback of 10 percent or more in two years, and hit their latest record highs just one week ago. "We've enjoyed low interest rates for so long, we're…


Feb22018 by DmediaNo Comments

Dow Falls More Than 600 Points as Stocks’ Slide Continues

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Stocks closed sharply lower in New York on Friday, extending a weeklong slide, as the Dow Jones industrial average plunged more than 600 points.  The drop capped stocks' worst week in two years. The Dow's drop was its biggest in percentage terms since June 2016. Several giant U.S. companies' shares dropped after reporting weak earnings, including Exxon Mobil and Alphabet. Apple and Chevron also fell. Bond yields rose sharply after the government reported the fastest wage growth in eight years, stoking fears of inflation. The Dow fell 665 points, or 2.5 percent, to 25,520. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 59 points, or 2.1 percent, to 2,762. The S&P is down almost 4 percent since hitting a record high a week ago. The Nasdaq was off 144 points, or 2 percent,…


Feb22018 by DmediaNo Comments

Britain Embraces China’s ‘One Belt’ Initiative; Washington Offers Warning

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Britain has made clear its desire to be part of China's so-called "One Belt One Road" initiative — a cornerstone of President Xi Jinping's vision to boost Chinese investment and influence across Asia, Europe and Africa. But there are concerns about the financial and humanitarian costs of the vast infrastructure projects being undertaken. British Prime Minister Theresa May recently visited Beijing, leading a delegation of ministers and business leaders in an effort to boost trade after Britain's European Union exit. The two countries signed deals worth $12.7 billion, and May hailed a "golden era" of Sino-British relations. Her ambassador to Beijing, Barbara Woodward, earlier outlined Britain's hopes of cooperating in China's "One Belt One Road" initiative. "The first is, we'd like to collaborate on practical projects," she said. "The second…


Feb22018 by DmediaNo Comments

Google’s AI Push Comes with Plenty of People Problems

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Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently declared that artificial intelligence fueled by powerful computers was more important to humanity than fire or electricity. And yet the search giant increasingly faces a variety of messy people problems as well. The company has vowed to employ thousands of human checkers just to catch rogue YouTube posters, Russian bots and other purveyors of unsavory content. It’s also on a buying spree to find office space for its burgeoning workforce in pricey Silicon Valley.  For a company that built its success on using faceless algorithms to automate many human tasks, this focus on people presents something of a conundrum. Yet it’s also a necessary one as lawmakers ramp up the pressure on Google to deter foreign powers from abusing its platforms and its YouTube unit…


Feb22018 by DmediaNo Comments

Apple Dealing with iPhone Jitters, Coming Off Big Quarter

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Apple is making more money than ever, but it still doesn't seem to be enough to keep everyone happy. Not with conspiracy theories swirling around Apple's secret slowdown of older iPhones while a cloud of uncertainty looms over its high-priced iPhone X. It's a reality check for a company accustomed to an unflinchingly loyal customer base. Apple expected buyers to embrace the iPhone X as a revolutionary device worth its $1,000 price, but it appears many Apple fans aren't impressed enough to ante up, especially with other recently released models selling for $200 to $300 less. And not even the less expensive iPhone 8 line appears to be selling quite as well as analysts had expected, based on the numbers that came out Thursday in Apple's fiscal first-quarter earnings report.…


Feb12018 by DmediaNo Comments

India Announces Raft of Measures for Rural Development

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With an eye on general elections next year, India has announced several populist measures that include a health insurance program for 500 million people, and billions of dollars for rural development and affordable housing in its annual budget.   Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the measures aimed at improving “ease of living” for citizens, the vast majority of whom live in rural areas.   The announcements came amid widespread rural distress due to falling crop prices. Several farmers protests, sometimes violent, took place last year. In a country where two thirds of the 1.3 billion people depend on agriculture, there are growing worries the anger in the countryside will pose a challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government when it seeks reelection next year. Saying "my government is…


Feb12018 by DmediaNo Comments

5 Things: What Yellen’s Fed Tenure Will be Remembered For

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When Janet Yellen leaves the Federal Reserve this weekend after four years as chair, her legacy will include having shattered a social barrier: She is the first woman to have led the world's most powerful central bank, a position that carries enormous sway over the global economy.   Yellen will be remembered, too, for her achievements in deftly guiding the Fed's role in the U.S. economy's slow recovery from a crushing financial crisis and recession. She picked up where her predecessor, Ben Bernanke, had left off in nurturing the nation's recuperation from a crisis that nearly toppled the financial system. As Jerome Powell prepares to succeed Yellen as leader of the U.S. central bank, here are five areas in which Yellen's era at the Fed will be remembered:   Crisis…


Feb12018 by DmediaNo Comments

Lightweight Brain-Controlled Artificial Hand Being Developed

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Scientists and engineers around the world are slowly but steadily improving brain-controlled artificial limbs hoping to make them more affordable to patients. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – EPFL - say their lightweight artificial hand may someday help paraplegic patients be able to feed themselves. VOA’s George Putic explains. ...


Jan312018 by DmediaNo Comments

Dating App Tinder Cited for Discriminating Against Over-30s

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A California court has ruled that the popular dating app Tinder violated age discrimination laws by charging users 30 and older more than younger ones. Allan Candelore of California sued the app company over the pricing of its Tinder Plus premium service. Tinder Plus costs $9.99 per month for users younger than 30, while those 30 and older are charged $19.99 per month. The features for Tinder Plus are identical for users regardless of age. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brian Currey ruled in favor of Allan Candelore, 33, of San Diego, saying Tinder's pricing violates California's Unruh Civil Rights Act. That law "provides protection from discrimination by all business establishments in California." The company countered in court documents that it is "self-evident that people under 30 face financial challenges"…


Jan312018 by DmediaNo Comments

Connected Thermometer Tracks the Spread and Intensity of the Flu

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When a child feels sick, one of the first things a parent does is reach for a thermometer. That common act intrigued Inder Singh, a long-time health policy expert. What if the thermometer could be a communication device – connecting people with information about illnesses going around and gathering real time data on diseases as they spread?  That’s the idea behind Singh’s firm Kinsa, a health data company based in San Francisco that sells “smart” thermometers. Worst flu season in years With the U.S. in the midst of its worst flu season in years, Kinsa has been on the forefront of tracking the spread and severity of flu-like symptoms by region. The company says its data is a close match to flu data tracked by the U.S.Centers for Disease Control…


Jan312018 by DmediaNo Comments

Mugabe’s Political Demise Brings Hope to Zimbabwe’s Ousted White Farmers

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A new political dawn in Zimbabwe has sparked talk among farmers of land reform and the return of some whites who lost their land and livelihoods to President Robert Mugabe during a 37-year rule that drove the economy to collapse. Mugabe, 93, resigned in November after the army and his ZANU-PF party turned against him, prompting optimism among some of the thousands of white farmers ousted in the early 2000s on the grounds of redressing imbalances from the colonial era. For colonialists seized some of the best agricultural land that remained in the hands of white farmers after independence in 1980 leaving many blacks effectively landless and making land ownership one of Zimbabwe's most sensitive political topics. Now some white landowners hope the post-Mugabe regime may address the land issue,…


Jan312018 by DmediaNo Comments

Refugees Ready to Go Green, Become ‘Innovation Hubs’

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Many refugees would like to buy low-carbon stoves and lights but poor access in camps and a lack of funding is forcing them to rely on "dirty and expensive" fuels, a report said Tuesday. Millions of refugees worldwide struggle to access energy for cooking, lighting and communication and often pay high costs for fuels like firewood, which are bad for their health. Yet two-thirds would consider paying for clean cookstoves and more than one-third for solar household products, according to a survey by the Moving Energy Initiative (MEI), a partnership among Britain, the United Nations and charities. "Energy providers don't tend to think of refugees as potential energy consumers, but the opportunities to build a relationship with them are huge," Mattia Vianello, one of the report's authors, told the Thomson…


Jan312018 by DmediaNo Comments

Colorful Makeover Puts Mumbai Slum on Tourist Map

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A colorful paint job has transformed one of Mumbai's drab hilltop slums into a tourist destination, even prompting comparisons with Italy's picturesque Amalfi Coast. During a recent journey on a Mumbai metro train, Dedeepya Reddy was struck by the grim appearance of a slum in Asalpha in the city's eastern suburbs as she stared out from her air-conditioned carriage. Reddy, a Harvard University-educated co-founder of a creative agency, was keen to brighten the lives of slum residents, while also changing the perception of slums being dirty and dangerous, and decided on a simple makeover. Armed with dozens of cans of colorful paint, Reddy and a team of about 700 volunteers painted the walls and alleyways of the hilltop slum over two weekends last month. Residents, at first skeptical, also got…


Jan302018 by DmediaNo Comments

NEM Foundation: Coincheck Hackers Trying to Move Stolen Cryptocurrency

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Hackers who stole around $530 million worth of cryptocurrency from the Coincheck exchange last week — one of the biggest such heists ever — are trying to move the stolen “XEM” coins, the foundation behind the digital currency said on Tuesday. NEM Foundation, creators of the XEM cryptocurrency, have traced the stolen coins to an unidentified account, and the account owner had begun trying to move the coins onto six exchanges where they could then be sold, Jeff McDonald said. Hackers made off with roughly $533 million worth of the cryptocurrency from Tokyo-based exchange Coincheck Inc late last week, raising fresh questions about security and regulatory protection in the booming market. The location of the hackers’ account was not known. “(The hackers are) trying to spend them on multiple exchanges.…


Jan302018 by DmediaNo Comments

IMF Chief Says Middle Eastern Nations Must Broaden Tax Bases

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Middle Eastern countries should pursue fiscal policies to support growth and build broader tax bases to fund infrastructure projects and social spending, the head of the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday. "A key priority is building broader and more equitable tax bases. All must pay their fair share, while the poor must be protected," IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde told an economic conference in Marrakech, organized by the Washington-based fund and the kingdom. That would allow them to spend more on social safety nets, health and education services than the current 11 percent of gross domestic product in the region. "Fiscal policy can and must be redesigned to support inclusive growth in the region," Lagarde said. More efforts are also needed to support the private sector, she said. The state, the dominant…


Jan302018 by DmediaNo Comments

Venezuela Drops Overvalued Exchange Rate for State Imports

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Venezuela is abandoning the most-overvalued of its two official foreign exchange rates, which had been used for state imports of food and medicine amid a worsening economic crisis.   The move could potentially encourage businesses to import more and put more goods on store shelves and in pharmacies, but only if the government carries it out as written, said Francisco Rodriguez, a former Venezuelan official who is now chief economist at the New York-based Torino Capital.   "This is not a place where there's a good tradition of following the letter of the law,'' Rodriguez said Tuesday. "I don't think that one should get too optimistic."   Oil-rich Venezuela is in the fifth year of a deepening economic crisis that has brought scarcities of basic foods and medicine after nearly…


Jan302018 by DmediaNo Comments

Car Manufacturers Boast of Fuel Efficiency

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The annual Washington Auto Show is not the biggest or the most important convention of the year, but it still attracts a lot of attention, from enthusiasts and potential customers to automotive industry professionals.  Self-driving cars are still some time off, so the focus this year continues to be on fuel efficiency. VOA’s George Putic has more. ...


Jan302018 by DmediaNo Comments

Concern Fitness Tracking App Exposed US Military Bases Just the Start

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The controversy over information gathered from GPS-enabled fitness devices and published online – in some cases highlighting possible activity at U.S. military bases in places like Syria and Afghanistan – could be just the start of an ever-growing problem in a world where more people and devices are connected to the internet. Already, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has ordered a review of security protocols following concerns that a so-called Heatmap published by the fitness app company Strava showed locations and movement patterns of troops serving overseas. "We take matters like these very seriously and are reviewing the situation to determine if any additional training or guidance is required," the Pentagon said in a statement Monday. "Recent data releases emphasize the need for situational awareness when members of the military…


Jan302018 by DmediaNo Comments

Cuba Tourism Slides in Wake of Hurricane Irma, Trump

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Tourism to Cuba, one of the few bright spots in its ailing economy, has slid in the wake of Hurricane Irma and the Trump administration's tighter restrictions on travel to the Caribbean island, a Cuban tourism official said on Monday. Although the number of visitors rose nearly 20 percent in 2017, it fell 10 percent on the year in December, and is down 7-8 percent this month, Jose Manuel Bisbe York, the president of Cuban state travel agency conglomerate Viajes Cuba, said. Arrivals from the United States, which had surged in the wake of the U.S.-Cuban detente in 2014, took the worst hit, dropping 30 percent last December, he told Reuters. "Since Hurricane Irma, we've seen arrivals shrink," Bisbe York said on the sidelines of the event organized by U.S.…