More than half of all international patent applications filed last year came from Asia, a further sign of innovation shifting "from west to east," the United Nations said Tuesday.
In the latest annual breakdown of patent filings released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the United States remained the leading individual country for applications in 2018.
But on a regional basis, Asia's surge continued.
"Asia is now the majority filer of international patent applications via WIPO, which is an important milestone for that economically dynamic region and underscores the historical geographical shift of innovative activity from west to east," the agency's director general Francis Gurry said in a statement.
WIPO's complex system of registering international patents involves multiple categories.
In the main category -- the Patent Cooperation Treaty  -- the US led the way with 56,142 applications, followed China (53,345) and Japan (49,702).
Germany and South Korea came ..

UN patent data shows Asia innovation surge

PTI Automatic

One of the world's biggest aluminium producers, Norway's Norsk Hydro, said Tuesday it had been hit by a cyber-attack of unknown origin.
"Hydro became victim of an extensive cyberattack in the early hours of Tuesday, impacting operations in several of the company's business areas," the energy group said in a statement.
Spokesman Halvor Molland said it was too early to determine the full extent of the attack, or its origin.
"Our IT department is working to contain the impact" of the attack, he told AFP.
Most of the company's IT systems were affected, many of them disconnected and switched to manual operations.
The group's website was down on Tuesday morning.
The news sent the firm's share price tumbling 2.0 per cent in early trading on the Oslo Stock Exchange.
Norway's National Security Authority (NSM), tasked with protecting the country from cyberattacks, espionage, sabotage or acts of terrorism, said it was assisting Norsk Hydro.
"We are obviously trying to identify whether it will ...

Norway's Norsk Hydro hit by 'extensive' cyberattack

Renowned Soviet-era film-maker Marlen Khutsiev, one of the country's most influential post-war directors, has died aged 93, the Russian Union of Cinematographers said on Tuesday.
A leading representative of the Soviet New Wave, "he lived a life full of drama and joy," spokeswoman Tatyana Nemchinskaya told AFP.
The director's career spanned more than six decades and he worked into his 90s.
President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences on the passing of the "distinguished" director, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Georgian-born Khutsiev was famous for cult films in the mid 1950s and 1960s that captured the mood in Soviet society during Nikita Khrushchev's Thaw.
His works included "Spring on Zarechnaya Street" (1956) and "I am Twenty", known in the West as "Ilyich's Gate" (1965).
"He created a revolution in the 1960s and became a symbol of our Thaw," prominent filmmaker Pavel Lungin told AFP.
Lungin said "Ilych's Gate", which portrayed the lives of ordinary Soviets and featured ...

Soviet New Wave film-maker Khutsiev dies at 93

Boko Haram militants have attacked a town in northeast Nigeria, killing three, and robbing and burning a bank, residents said on Tuesday, in the latest violence in the restive region.
Jihadist fighters arriving aboard vehicles and motorcycles stormed Michika in Adamawa state near the border with neighbouring Borno at about 6:30 pm (1730 GMT) on Monday, firing guns and forcing some residents to flee the town.
Others were said to have locked themselves in their homes.
"They attacked a commercial bus driving through the town and killed three people inside. They overpowered soldiers in the town and forced them to withdraw," resident Saleh Abbare told AFP.
He said the insurgents also broke into a commercial bank, carted away money and set the building on fire.
"The bank was recently renovated and banking activities resumed since 2014 after it was destroyed by the same Boko Haram when they took over the town," he said.
Another resident, Daniel Bature, said the jihadists were pushed out ...

Boko Haram kills three in NE Nigeria: Residents

The annual Templeton Prize, which recognises outstanding contributions to "affirming life's spiritual dimension," was awarded Tuesday to Brazilian Marcelo Gleiser - a theoretical physicist dedicated to demonstrating science and religion are not enemies.
A physics and astronomy professor whose specialisations include cosmology, 60-year-old Gleiser was born in Rio de Janeiro, and has been in the United States since 1986.
An agnostic, he doesn't believe in God - but refuses to write off the possibility of God's existence completely.
"Atheism is inconsistent with the scientific method," Gleiser told AFP Monday from Dartmouth College, the New Hampshire university where he has taught since 1991.
"Atheism is a belief in non-belief. So you categorically deny something you have no evidence against." "I'll keep an open mind because I understand that human knowledge is limited," he added.
The prize is funded by the John Templeton Foundation - a philanthropic organisation named after the American 

Physicist Marcelo Gleiser: 'Science does not kill God'

The bodies of six of the Christchurch massacre victims have been released to their families, New Zealand police said Tuesday, but they warned only a fraction of the 50 people killed had been fully identified, with the delay angering anguished relatives.
Muslims whose loved ones were gunned down by an Australian white supremacist at two mosques last Friday have had their grief compounded by the failure of the authorities to return bodies to families in time for a speedy burial, as required under Islamic custom.
Police in Christchurch said only 12 of the 50 victims had been identified, and appeared to warn next of kin to brace for further delays.
"We are doing all we can to undertake this work as quickly as possible and return the victims to their loved ones," a police statement said.
"While identification may seem straightforward the reality is much more complex, particularly in a situation like this." Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern vowed on Tuesday that gunman Brenton Tarrant would ...

NZ returns first shooting dead after delay angers families

New Zealanders are gathering to thump chests, stomp feet and stick out their tongues - staging impromptu performances of the haka war dance to show solidarity with a Muslim community shattered by the mass shooting in Christchurch.
Kiwis ranging from heavily tattooed bikers to business executives, children and the elderly have lined up to perform the intimidating ceremonial dance which begins with fierce chants roughly translated as "I Live! I Die!"
As the country struggles to respond to the horrific tragedy, it was perhaps inevitable that many would turn to the haka - a dance whose origins lie with the indigenous Maori community but which has become a global symbol of New Zealand as the battle cry of its national rugby team, the All Blacks.
The aggressive ritual and threatening histrionics may seem out of step with the sombre atmosphere gripping the nation after Brenton Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian and avowed white supremacist, allegedly gunned down 50 Muslims during prayers last 

'I Live! I Die!' -- New Zealand uses haka to heal after attacks

The head of Japan's Olympic Committee said Tuesday he would step down in June, as French authorities probe his involvement in payments made before Tokyo was awarded the 2020 Summer Games.
"On June 27, my term will expire," Tsunekazu Takeda said at a meeting of the Japan Olympic Committee (JOC) in Tokyo.
"Considering the future of the JOC, I think the most appropriate thing is to leave things to a new leader from the next generation so that they can host the Olympics and carve a new era."
The 71-year-old said he would also be stepping down from the International Olympic Committee.
Takeda has come under pressure not to seek an additional term when his current mandate ends in June after it was revealed that French authorities believe they have evidence of corruption in the awarding of the 2020 Games to Tokyo.
Current JOC rules require candidates for the top post to be 70 or younger at the time of their candidacy, but there had been rumours the committee was considering a change to allow .

Japan Olympic chief facing corruption probe to step down

Iran has denied a claim by the Turkish interior minister that it took part in a joint operation on Monday targeting Kurdish rebels in the border area.
In recent weeks, Ankara has talked up the prospects of joint military action with Tehran against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its allies but Monday marked the first time it had spoken of a joint operation being carried out.
"Iran's armed forces have no role in this operation," the official IRNA news agency quoted an "informed source" in the general staff as saying on Monday evening.
However Iran "will forcefully confront any group that seeks to create unrest on our country's soil," the source added.
Earlier on Monday, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said: "We started staging a joint operation with Iran against the PKK on our eastern border as of 8 am (0500 GMT)".
Soylu did not specify where the joint operation was taking place but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said previously that joint military action would ...

Iran denies joint raid with Turkey against Kurd rebels

The bodies of six of the Christchurch massacre victims have been released to their families after an anguished-filled delay, New Zealand police said Tuesday, but they warned only a fraction of those killed had been fully identified.
Police said that all 50 autopsies had been concluded but only "12 victims have been identified to the satisfaction of the Coroner".
"Six of those identified victims have been returned to their families." The delay has caused consternation among families of the dead, who would have liked to follow Islamic custom and bury their loved ones within 24 hours.
Mohamed Safi, 23, whose father Matiullah Safi died in Al Noor mosque, earlier voiced frustration with officials for not giving grieving families any indication of when the bodies would be released.
"There's nothing they are offering," the Afghan refugee said outside the family support centre in Christchurch.
"They are just saying they are doing their procedures, they are doing their process.
"But what ...

Six bodies released to Christchurch families after delay: police

Asian markets dipped Tuesday as investors bide their time until the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting, while the pound fought back against the dollar after taking a hit from the latest twist in the Brexit saga.
With little fresh information on developments in China-US trade talks, focus has turned this week to the US central bank and its interest rate plans.
Board members are widely expected to hold fire on another hike but its post-meeting statement Wednesday will be pored over, with observers predicting the Fed will opt for just one increase this year as opposed to the two previously tipped, owing to the stuttering economy.
The Fed's softer tone has been one of the key factors in a global stocks rally this year, with investors buoyed by the prospect of cheap borrowing.
Wall Street provided a positive lead with all three main indexes ending higher, though Asia struggled to take up the baton.
Hong Kong inched down 0.1 per cent after three days of gains, while Shanghai closed 0.2 

Asian stocks dip ahead of Fed meeting but pound enjoys rebound

A Myanmar court on Tuesday sentenced a prominent ethnic Rakhine leader to 20 years in jail for treason, a verdict likely to intensify anger amid fighting between the ethnic group and the army.
Security forces tried to calm hundreds of supporters outside the court in Rakhine state capital Sittwe as Aye Maung was escorted to a waiting police van following the verdict.
Aye Maung, the former chairman of the Arakan National Party -- which is renowned for hardline views against the Rohingya Muslim minority -- was sentenced for treason and defamation over an allegedly inflammatory speech in January 2018, a day before deadly riots.
State-backed media at the time said he railed against the central government for treating the ethnic Rakhine as "slaves" and said it was the "right time" for the community to launch an armed struggle.
The following evening, Rakhine protesters briefly seized a government building and police opened fire, killing seven people.
Aye Maung and a fellow detainee -- writer 

Myanmar court jails Rakhine leader for 20 years for treason

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern vowed Tuesday never to utter the name of the twin-mosque gunman as she opened a sombre session of parliament with an evocative "as-salaam alaikum" message of peace to Muslims.
"He will face the full force of the law in New Zealand," Ardern pledged to grieving Kiwis, while promising that she would deprive the man, an avowed white supremacist who slaughtered 50 people in Christchurch, of the publicity he craved.
"He sought many things from his act of terror, but one was notoriety," she told assembled lawmakers of the 28-year-old Australian accused of the slaughter.
"That is why you will never hear me mention his name. He is a terrorist. He is a criminal. He is an extremist. But he will, when I speak, be nameless."
"I implore you: Speak the names of those who were lost rather than the name of the man who took them." Dressed in black, the 38-year-old leader opened her remarks in parliament with a symbolic gesture, repeating the greeting uttered ...

NZ PM Ardern vows mosque killer will face 'full force of law'

A Thai tycoon accused of poaching a black leopard was sentenced to 16 months in jail on other charges Tuesday but allowed to go free pending an appeal, in a case that has caused an outcry in a country fed up with impunity for powerful figures.
Construction magnate Premchai Karnasuta, whose company is behind major infrastructure projects such as Bangkok's monorail and its airport, was arrested by rangers in a national park in February 2018.
He and three others were detained after rangers stumbled upon their campsite and found guns and animal carcasses, including a Kalij pheasant, a red muntjac -- or barking deer -- and the pelt of a black leopard.
While Premchai was found not guilty of possessing a leopard carcass, he was convicted of three other poaching-related charges.
The verdict, handed out in a statement to reporters waiting at Thong Pha Phum courthouse, said Premchai was "sentenced altogether to 16 months".
Two others caught with him -- his driver and cook -- received lesser ...

Thai tycoon convicted, bailed in black leopard poaching case

President Donald Trump has nominated a veteran Washington lawyer as his first ambassador to Mexico, a delicate role in representing a US leader set on building a wall between the countries.
Christopher Landau, who had been rumoured for a job since the start of the Trump administration, served as a clerk to two conservative-leaning Supreme Court justices before becoming a prominent lawyer focused on appeals.
He has no diplomatic experience but studied Latin America at Harvard and speaks Spanish.
His father, George Landau, was a longtime US policymaker in Latin America who served as ambassador to Chile, Paraguay and Venezuela.
Trump announced Landau, who requires confirmation by the Senate, in a statement released late Monday. Numerous key diplomatic posts remain empty more than two years into Trump's tenure.
The United States has been without an ambassador in Mexico City since May, when Roberta Jacobson, who was named by Barack Obama, resigned.
She had initially decided to stay on ...

Trump names conservative lawyer as Mexico ambassador

A Thai tycoon accused of poaching a black leopard at a wildlife sanctuary arrived in court Tuesday for the highly anticipated verdict - a case that has fuelled outrage in a country fed up with impunity and corruption.
Construction magnate Premchai Karnasuta, whose company is behind major infrastructure projects such as Bangkok's monorail and its airport, was arrested by rangers in a national park in February 2018.
He was detained with three others after rangers stumbled upon their campsite and found guns and animal carcasses, including a Kalij pheasant, a red muntjac - or barking deer - and the pelt of a black leopard.
The high-profile ruling is expected less than a week before a general election on March 24, the first polls since the junta seized power in 2014 vowing to expunge graft and uphold the rule of law.
Wearing a suit, Premchai arrived at the Thong Pha Phum courthouse in a black Range Rover around 8 am.
He calmly walked through the scrum of cameras and did not stop to respond 

Thai tycoon faces verdict in black leopard poaching case

A Melbourne resident was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Tuesday for killing a man for failing to pay charges on a room he found on Airbnb, Australia's national broadcaster said.
Jason Rohan Colton had earlier been convicted for the manslaughter of Ramis Jonuzi, 36, over Australian dollars 210 (USD150) in room charges.
In handing down the sentence, Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth called the attack on Jonuzi "cowardly, vicious and unprovoked", the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Jonuzi had booked a short-stay room in the Melbourne home that Colton rented in October 2017.
The court heard Colton choked, punched and kicked Jonuzi, who later died of his injuries.
Two other men who took part in the attack had earlier received jail terms of nine and seven-and-a-half years respectively.
Evidence introduced in court included a police interview of Colton in which he said Jonuzi "deserved everything he got".
Justice Hollingworth ordered that Colton serve at least eight years ...

Australian man gets 11 years for Airbnb killing

At 75, former footballer Baerbel Wohlleben still clearly remembers the moment in 1974 when a journalist asked, "but when you head the ball, doesn't it mess up your hair?" At that time, Wohlleben had already turned 30, but was only officially three years into her career as a footballer, because until 1971 the German Football Association (DFB) banned women from playing in competitions.
Moreover, any clubs allowing women to train or play at their facilities was liable to be sanctioned.
"...this aggressive sport is essentially alien to the nature of woman," decreed the DFB in 1955.
"In the fight for the ball, the feminine grace vanishes, body and soul will inevitably suffer harm."
Back then, even the idea of women wearing shorts was clearly a problem for the DFB as "the display of the body offends decency and modesty".
Nevertheless, the sexist rules from a bygone era did not stop Wohlleben playing football and she will be cheering the German team at the women's World Cup kick-off in ...

When the German FA banned women's football...

The National Enquirer bought revealing messages between Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his then-secret girlfriend for USD 200,000 from her brother, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
The Enquirer accessed the text messages, and in January reported that Bezos had an extramarital affair with former news anchor and entertainment reporter Lauren Sanchez -- a leak that led to his divorce.
In February, Bezos accused the tabloid's publisher American Media Inc -- led by David Pecker, who has been described as a close friend of Bezos critic President Donald Trump -- of trying to blackmail him over lurid photos.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Michael Sanchez sold the text messages, citing people familiar with the matter.
Sanchez told the newspaper he did not want to "dignify" the reporting on the deal and called it "old rumours," it reported.
Security consultant Gavin de Becker, who was investigating the leak for Bezos, previously told The Daily Beast that "strong leads point to ...

National Enquirer bought Bezos texts from girlfriend's brother: report

Women's football has fought a long battle for recognition -- but after several false starts the women's game has grown and grown in popularity and this year's World Cup in France promises to be the most-watched in history.
The women's game first emerged in Britain after World War I and found a new wave of support again in the late 1960s, before receding only to emerge again in the 1990s.
The emancipation movement after World War I triggered what many historians consider to be the golden age of women's football.
As men were drafted to the front, women took their place on the factory floor, and in their breaks, some of them enjoyed a kick around in the yards, a tradition the male factory workers had previously enjoyed.
The era had its great team, the "Munitionnettes", from Dick Kerr's munitions factory in Preston, northwest England, and their star player, Lily Parr, remains the sole woman in English football's Hall of Fame. She was inaugurated in 2009.
On December 26, 1920, over 53,000 .

The long march of women's football

Germany coach Joachim Loew hopes to prove his critics wrong and open 2019 with a win when his new-look team host Serbia in a friendly in Wolfsburg on Wednesday.
Loew, who arrived in Wolfsburg later than expected due to a dental operation this week, is hoping to bounce back from a painful 2018, in which Germany suffered an early World Cup exit and were relegated from the top tier of the UEFA Nations League.
The friendly against Serbia is a warm-up for Sunday's prestigious opening Euro 2020 qualifier away to the Netherlands with the Germans hunting revenge after a 3-0 thrashing at the hands of the Oranje last October at the Amsterdam Arena.
Amid fears that German football is in decline, the 59-year-old Loew is under pressure to show that he can build a new era of success around a younger generation of players.
Yet he has also faced fierce criticism for his decision to strike veteran World Cup winners Mats Hummels, Jerome Boateng and Thomas Mueller from the national team set-up, falling .

AFP

AFP

Page 698 - Afp