Sony's PlayStation 'gradually coming back'
Washington (AFP) Dec 27, 2014 -
Sony was still struggling Saturday to fully restore its online PlayStation system, three days after the Christmas day hack that also hit Microsoft's Xbox, reporting that services were "gradually coming back."
Meanwhile, Xbox was up and running except for three of its applications, following an allegedly coordinated attack that sent both companies scrambling.
PlayStation, whose support ho ...
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Hundreds protest against China-backed mine in Myanmar
Yangon (AFP) Dec 27, 2014 -
Around 500 people including dozens of Buddhist monks protested near the Chinese consulate in Myanmar's central city of Mandalay on Saturday demanding the closure of a flashpoint copper mine.
It was the largest protest since the fatal shooting of a woman demonstrating against the Letpadaung mine in the northwestern town of Monywa - a Chinese backed venture dogged by complaints of land grabbi ...
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Japan approves $29 bn stimulus package
Tokyo (AFP) Dec 27, 2014 -
The cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe approved a fresh stimulus package worth $29 billion Saturday in a bid to boost the economy, hit hard by a tax hike.
The 3.5-trillion-yen package is designed to help the provincial economy, small businesses and the household sector, as well as to increase public spending to rebuild areas hit by natural disasters.
"With speedy implementatio ...
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Gas leak kills three at S. Korea nuclear plant
Seoul (AFP) Dec 26, 2014 -
Three people were killed in a gas leak Friday at an under-construction atomic reactor in South Korea, but the national nuclear operator ruled out any connection to a cyber-attack that targeted the plant last week.
The workers appeared to have inhaled nitrogen gas while performing safety checks in an underground cable room at the Gori plant near the southeastern port city of Busan, Korea Hydr ...
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China extends high-speed rail network to Xinjiang
Beijing (AFP) Dec 26, 2014 -
China tied the restive far-western region of Xinjiang closer to the rest of the country Friday, opening a high-speed rail line between its remote capital and a city nearly 1,800 kilometres away.
A bullet train capable of speeds of up to 250 kilometres an hour departed the Western Chinese city of Lanzhou for Xinjiang's capital Urumqi, with female attendants in ethnic costumes serving 622 pas ...
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Ukraine shuts down faulty nuclear power plant reactor
Kiev (AFP) Dec 28, 2014 -
Ukraine on Sunday shut down one of the six reactors in its most powerful nuclear power plant for the second time in a month due to an apparent electrical malfunction.
The Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant said on its website that radiation levels in the area remained normal and that the station's other five reactors continued to operate without any problems.
It said the plant's sixth reacto ...
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Scientists trace nanoparticles from plants to caterpillars
Houston TX (SPX) Dec 23, 2014 -
In one of the most comprehensive laboratory studies of its kind, Rice University scientists traced the uptake and accumulation of quantum dot nanoparticles from water to plant roots, plant leaves and leaf-eating caterpillars.
The study, one of the first to examine how nanoparticles move through human-relevant food chains, found that nanoparticle accumulation in both plants and animals vari ...
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