Microsoft is out to use Windows software to do for altered reality what it did for personal computers: make them commonplace.
	The US technology giant today announced that Windows software already powering a wide range of devices including HoloLens augmented reality headgear is being opened to partners interested in building devices for "mixed reality" experiences.
	Devices built on the Windows platform will be interoperable, meaning that someone wearing HTC Vive virtual reality gear would be able to virtually visit and collaborate with someone using HoloLens virtual reality goggles, Microsoft executives told AFP.
	The list of partners already working with Microsoft included HTC, Lenovo, Asus, and HP.
	Microsoft said it built HoloLens to showcase the potential for the technology, which is based on the same Windows operating system that powers computers, smartphones, Xbox consoles and more.
	Sharing the Windows platform will mean that augmented or virtual reality gear from various ...

Microsoft wants Windows to open into mixed reality

PTI Automatic

Developing countries spent more on renewable power than rich ones for the first time last year, driving the fastest increase in sources of green energy on record, a study said today.
	Global investment in renewable power was more than double the amount spent on new coal and natural gas-fired power generation in 2015, the Renewables Global Status report found.
	Overall spending on green energy rose five per cent from 2014 to USD 286 billion, beating the previous record set in 2011.
	China opened its coffers the widest, accounting for more than a third of total investment worldwide, while India, South Africa, Mexico and Chile also significantly increased spending.
	In total, some 147 gigawatts of capacity was added during the year -- the largest increase ever and reportedly the equivalent of all of Africa's generating capacity.
	"Renewables are now established around the world as mainstream sources of energy," the report said.
	"New markets for both centralised and distributed renewable 

Renewable energy sources grew at record pace in 2015: Study

A surfer was critical today after a shark ripped off his leg in an attack in Australia's west with witnesses recounting how "all hell broke loose" as his board was snapped in half.
	The attack happened at Falcon Beach, a suburb south of Perth, late yesterday not long after Surf Life Saving WA, a volunteer non-profit organisation, tweeted that a shark, believed to be a great white, had been sighted in the area.
	The West Australian newspaper reported that Ben Gerring, 29, was with a group of other surfers when he was hit by the shark, which it said severed his right leg above the knee.
	Fellow surfers dragged the heavily-bleeding man to shore as he lost consciousness.
	"I turned and looked back and I actually saw thrashing around him and I heard him yelling for help," friend Sheldon Spencer told the newspaper.
	"His leg was gone...One of the guys started CPR straightaway. We did everything we could."
	He was transferred to Royal Perth Hospital by helicopter where he was said to be in ..

Man loses leg in Australia shark attack

Fresh off a 70-day campaign to boost production, North Korea kicked off an even more ambitious 200-day "battle" today, apparently aimed at jump-starting a new five-year economic plan.
	North Koreans are used to mandatory mass mobilisation campaigns, with participation rigorously monitored and used as a measurement of loyalty to the regime, but observers say ordering two such lengthy campaigns back-to-back is relatively uncommon.
	The start of the new movement was hailed by state media today.
	"All party officials, military officers and people...Have broken loose and stepped forward with 100-times the normal courage and vigour, fully-charged for the 200-day battle," ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in a long, front-page editorial.
	Few details have emerged of what will actually be required of individuals and institutions during the campaign, but state media reports have made a clear link with the five-year economic plan announced by leader Kim Jong-Un during a rare ruling ...

N Korea kicks off 200-day 'battle' for new economic plan

Malaysia has sacked 15 immigration department officers and suspended 14 others after an investigation found staff had colluded with criminal syndicates to manipulate systems that track entry and exit, the government has said.
	The subterfuge was centred at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and had begun in 2010, the department's director-general, Sakib Kusmi, said in a statement released yesterday.
	Around two dozen other department staff have faced administrative action or were under observation, 63 have been transferred, and criminal charges could be forthcoming, he said.
	"The syndicates hacked or breached our system with the help of the involved immigration officers," he said.
	Sakib added that the activity allowed the criminal networks - which he said included foreign elements - to manipulate information on who entered or left the country.
	No further details on the syndicates, or other specifics of the nature or scope of the sabotage, were given.
	Deputy Prime Minister ..

Malaysia fires immigration staff for aiding criminals

Japan's military today joined the search for a seven-year-old boy missing in the country's north since his parents said they abandoned him in a bear-inhabited mountain forest, officials said.
	A total of 75 personnel from the Ground Self-Defence Force - Japan's army - joined some 130 fire rescuers, police officers and volunteers to look for the boy, rescuer Satoshi Saito told AFP by telephone.
	Yamato Tanooka has been missing since Saturday after his parents said they made him get out their car on a mountain road as punishment for misbehaving. He is reportedly without food or water.
	Rescuers have admitted it is a frustratingly difficult task to find the vanished boy due to a lack of evidence found so far of his presence in the rugged mountainous area on the wild bear-inhabited island of Hokkaido.
	The boy's parents originally told police their son had got lost while they were out hiking to gather wild vegetables -- but later admitted they were angry and tried to punish him because he 

Japan military joins search for missing boy

Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank today said it will sell at least USD 7.9 billion of its stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, as it looks to pay down a whopping debt load.
	The move will reduce SoftBank's 32.2 per cent holding in the Chinese company to about 28 percent with the sale, it said, adding that proceeds would be earmarked to pay down debts.
	SoftBank said in a statement it has "approved of a series of capital raising transactions, which involve monetising a portion of the shares of Alibaba".
	The Japanese mobile carrier, led by charismatic businessman Masayoshi Son, first made its investment in Alibaba in 2000.
	"This investment has been phenomenally successful and, over the past 16 years, we have built a close relationship, working together on many exciting projects," Son said in the statement, adding that the pair would continue to work together.
	Led by Son, SoftBank launched an acquisition streak that saw it pick up an assortment of firms, including its USD 16 ...

SoftBank to sell part of stake in China's Alibaba for $7.9 bn

Lionel Messi and Argentina will be targeting the country's 23-year title drought when the Copa America Centenario kicks off on Friday after a troubled build-up marred by corruption allegations which threatened to derail the event.
     One hundred years after Uruguay clinched the inaugural four-team South American championship in Argentina, 16 teams from across the Americas are gathered in the United States for a special one-off edition of the tournament.
     The three-week festival of football gets under way at the Levi's Stadium in California on Friday, when the United States face Colombia at the home of the San Francisco 49ers American football team.
     The tournament will conclude with a final at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford on June 26, drawing a line under what is arguably the biggest tournament held in the United States since the 1994 World Cup.
     Billed as a celebration of football across the Americas, 10 South American teams and six teams from the ...

Messi targets drought as Copa Centenario kicks off

Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank will sell part its stake to pay down a whopping debt load

Press Trust of India

Mexican authorities arrested a man married to a cousin of football star Alan Pulido, accusing the suspect of ordering the player's high-profile kidnapping over the weekend.
	Osvaldo Velazquez Garcia, 29, was wounded and detained in a house in the northeastern city of Ciudad Victoria yesterday after a shootout with federal police, said Tamaulipas state prosecutor Ismael Quintanilla.
	Velazquez started shooting after he was surrounded, Quintanilla said. He was hit in the right shoulder and lightly wounded in the neck, but he is out of danger.
	He was identified as the alleged mastermind of the kidnapping by a 38-year-old accomplice who was arrested late Sunday after Pulido managed to punch one captor and call the police.
	"He's the husband of a cousin" of Pulido's, Quintanilla said, adding a new twist to a case that has drawn praise for Pulido's heroics but also raised doubts about the official version of events.
	The prosecutor said Velazquez was a member of a criminal organisation ...

Mexican football player's relative ordered kidnapping:

Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank today said it will sell at least USD 7.9 billion of its stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, as it looks to pay down a whopping debt load.
	The move will reduce SoftBank's 32.2 percent holding in the Chinese company to about 28 percent with the sale, it said, adding that proceeds would be earmarked to pay down debts.
	SoftBank said in a statement it has "approved of a series of capital raising transactions, which involve monetising a portion of the shares of Alibaba".
	The Japanese mobile carrier, led by charismatic businessman Masayoshi Son, first made its investment in Alibaba in 2000.
	"This investment has been phenomenally successful and, over the past 16 years, we have built a close relationship, working together on many exciting projects," Son said in the statement, adding that the pair would continue to work together.
	Led by Son, SoftBank launched an acquisition streak that saw it pick up an assortment of firms, including its USD 16 ...

SoftBank to sell part of stake in China's Alibaba for USD 7.9

Brazil is lifting visa requirements for tourists from Australia, Canada, Japan and the United States starting today to encourage travel to the Rio Olympics, the government said.
	The tourism ministry said yesterday that it was throwing the doors open to tourists from the four countries because they are already a good market, have strong interest in the Olympics and pose a low security risk.
	"These tourists will boost the country's economy by spending in hotels, restaurants, car hire, travel agencies and many other sectors," Tourism Minister Henrique Eduardo Alves said in a statement.
	"In this period, our attractions will be on global view. If we do our part, many of these tourists will return after the Olympics bringing friends and relatives," he said.
	The Olympics, the first to be held in South America, start August 5.

Brazil eases visa rules ahead of Rio Olympics

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker has warned against expecting any announcement on the lifting of EU sanctions on Russia when he visits the country in mid-June.
	EU leaders must decide by the end of June whether to prolong the sanctions they imposed on Russia over the annexation of Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which run out in July.
	Juncker will attend an economic forum in Saint Petersburg on June 16, where he will meet with President Vladimir Putin.
	But during a visit to Paris yesterday he downplayed the prospect of any breakthrough on lifting the sanctions on Russia's banking, defence and energy sectors.
	"My visit to Saint Petersburg, which has a more economic than political focus, will not be an occasion for the European Union to announce any sort of change in our attitude towards Russia," he said.
	"I will not change the European Union's general assessment of Mr Putin's actions," he said.
	Juncker has backed the position taken by the G7 summit in ...

Expect no sanctions reprieve from Russia visit: Juncker

Pakistan is moving closer to eradicating polio, officials said today, with no fresh traces of the crippling childhood disease found in sewage samples taken from 40 high-risk sites across the country over April.
	   "This is in line with our objective of eliminating polio by the end of the year," said Rana Safdar, national coordinator of the Emergency Operation Centre tasked with eliminating the disease which is endemic to Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan.
	   He said 11 new polio cases have been recorded in humans since the start of the year compared to 25 in the same period in 2015, a year which itself saw an overall decline in incidents of the disease.
	   April was the first month since testing of sewage began that zero samples taken from 40 high-risk urban sites tested positive.
	   "It does not mean that we have cleaned the country of polio, but we have a lot of confidence that the intensity of the virus transmission has decreased to an all-time low," said Safdar, adding the 

Pakistan closer to eliminating polio: officials

A Spanish court sentenced a former Slovakian swimwear model today to 15 years in jail for murdering her millionaire British ex-boyfriend at his home two years ago.
	   A jury at the court in the southern city of Malaga on Friday found Maria Kukucova, 26, guilty of killing Andrew Bush, 48, by shooting him twice in the head and once in the shoulder.
	   It said Kukucova was "obsessed" with Bush and was "driven by a state of passion" when she shot the former jewelry store owner.
	   Kukucova was upset by the end of her romantic relationship with Bush as well as over the "loss of social status and lifestyle", the jury added.
	   During the week-long trial, Kukucova told the court that she had never meant to harm Bush, and had acted in self-defence during a violent struggle at his home in the Mediterranean town of Estepona, near Malaga, on Spain's Costa del Sol.
	   The presiding judge sentenced Kukucova to 15 years in prison for Bush's murder. She was also jailed for six months for ...

Slovak model jailed for murder of British millionaire ex-lover

Two new opinion polls out today show the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union ahead although a polling average still puts the "Remain" camp in the lead.
	The findings surprised many commentators ahead of the June 23 referendum because most recent polls have given the "Remain" camp led by Prime Minister David Cameron a narrow lead.
	One of the ICM polls for the Guardian newspaper was conducted online -- where pollsters typically believe more voters say they want to leave the EU -- and one was conducted by telephone.
	The online vote showed 47 per cent would like to leave while 44 per cent backed Prime Minister David Cameron's "Remain" campaign. A further nine percent were undecided ahead of the June 23 vote.
	In the telephone poll, 45 per cent said they favoured leaving while 42 per cent said they backed remaining. A total of 13 per cent did not know.
	It was only the third phone poll in the campaign to put the "Leave" camp ahead.
	"Our poll rather unhinges a few accepted ..

UK 'Leave' camp ahead in two EU referendum polls

Mars and Earth got unusually cozy drawing closer to each other than they have in more than a decade.
	The two planets passed at 120.7 million kilometers (75 million miles) away from each other yesterday night, which NASA said will not happen again until July 31, 2018.
	The average distance between Earth and Mars is 225 million kilometers (140 million miles), with the neighboring planets sometimes reaching distances as far as 402.3 million kilometers (250 million miles) when they are diametrically opposite the Sun.
	The last time Mars and Earth came this close was in 2005.
	In 2003, the celestial bodies were within 56.3 million kilometers (35 million miles) -- the nearest they had been in 60,000 years.
	Stargazers will have to wait until 2287 to see Mars at that distance again, according to NASA.
	Mars has shone particularly bright since mid-May, as it approached and aligned with the Earth and the Sun.
	The Red Planet will stay big and bright through mid-June, after which its intensity 

Close encounter between Mars and Earth

The United Nations raised alarm today concerning the fate of 300-400 Iraqi families rounded up by Islamic State (IS) group jihadists, possibly for use as human shields in the battleground city Fallujah.
	UN officials have received "credible reports that families are being concentrated into the center of the city by Daesh and they are not allowed to leave these concentration points," said UN deputy representative to Iraq Lise Grande, using a term for the IS group.
	"That would suggest that Daesh could be using them or may intend to use them as some kind of human shield," she told reporters.
	"They are at extreme risk if there is a military confrontation."
	Iraqi forces launched an offensive a week ago to recapture Fallujah, which became an IS group stronghold after its fighters seized the city in January 2014.
	The United Nations has raised concerns with the Iraqi government, which has slowed down the pace of its operation to try to protect the trapped families.
	The government is ...

UN alarmed about Iraqi families used as 'human shields'

Gulf Arab states grappling with lower oil revenues today formed a new agency to tighten economic cooperation in the region.
	The Economic and Development Affairs Authority "will boost coherence, integration and coordination between member states in all economic and development sectors," the Gulf Cooperation Council said in a statement after a summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
	The GCC was founded in 1981 to more deeply integrate the Gulf countries, but analysts say progress has been slow.
	The collapse of global oil prices has forced the Gulf monarchies to make unprecedented fuel and energy subsidy cuts and plan to introduce indirect taxation. They have also scaled back spending on large projects.
	Oil prices have fallen from more than USD 100 a barrel in early 2014 to around half that level.
	The newly formed body "will look into matters such as completing the customs union and the common market of the GCC states", Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told a news conference after the .

New Gulf body to tighten economic bonds

Donald Trump went on the offensive against the US media today, slamming coverage of USD 6 million he claimed to raise for veterans, branding the political press "dishonest" and one journalist "a sleaze."
	The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, who has a thin skin when it comes to perceived slights in the media, slammed the press for questioning his claim to have raised USD 6 million on one night in Iowa in January.
	The former reality TV star annihilated 16 rivals in the race to sew up the Republican nomination for the White House, and is trailing Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton by just a few percentage points in recent polls.
	Last January, he skipped a Republican debate hosted by Fox News in a row over the television channel's perceived bias and instead hosted a fundraising event for veterans' charities.
	Trump said today that he had raised USD 5.6 million, of which every penny had been donated to veteran charities, and that he expected additional donations to tip ..

Trump attacks 'dishonest' US media, 'sleazy' reporter

Couples bent on getting cozy in their car mustn't forget to put the handbrake on, Swedish police warned today after one passionate pair's van crashed after rolling down a hill.
	To hammer home the point, officers in Stockholm's Sodermalm district published pictures of the silver minivan at the bottom of a steep hill.
	"On Tanto Mount, the handbrake was left off when the couple's desire for each other got too much. Safety first. On all levels," the police wrote on Twitter.
	The department's officers are known for their humorous social media posts, attracting more than 65,000 subscribers on Twitter.
	In May, Sodermalm's police contingent mocked a youngster who was caught with a fake driving licence.
	"It's not good to try to deceive someone with a fake licence. It's downright stupid if the licence also says that you're born on February 30," they wrote earlier this month.

AFP

AFP

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