Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• President Oprah? President Zuckerberg? The rich and famous seem to be asking: Why not me?
• Trump’s address to Congress boasts of ‘new national pride’ sweeping nation
• Feds: Criminal officers stole from the innocent in Baltimore
• You May Not Even Need an iPhone 8 to Benefit From Its Best Feature
• Teenager Killed by Car While Trying to Rescue Cat Cat That Was Hit by Car
• Yahoo says about 32 million accounts accessed using 'forged cookies'
• China to cut 500,000 steel and coal jobs this year
• Donald Trump Is Tarnishing America’s Brand
• AG Sessions says he 'didn't recall' several times during press conference
• Subway swears its chicken is chicken and releases its own study
• Suspects charged with murder in airport nerve agent attack
• Photos of the day — February 28, 2017
• The Latest: California snowpack nearing record depths
• As US pressures Iran, parallel tensions grow between Israel and Hezbollah
• Ginsburg Skips Trump's Speech
• Marine Le Pen loses EU parliament immunity over tweets
• Amazon finally explained what happened when it accidentally took down the internet
• How to Get the Most Out of Your Home Inspection
• Cop Tackles Man Seen Hitting Police Station Windows With Baseball Bat
• Photos of the day - March 2, 2017
• Small Plane Crashes Into California Homes, Killing 3 People
• Japan emperor to meet abandoned Vietnam families of soldiers
• US drone kills two on motorbike in Pakistan: officials
• Canada, U.S. join forces on tackling border asylum-seekers
• Spoiler Alert: Subway chicken sandwiches are only 50% chicken, but they’re still 100% delicious
• Apple Wins $533 Million Patent Case
• The Latest: 1 of 3 slain teens had feuded with gang member
• Scientists are firing lasers at dinosaur fossils, and the result is awesome
• The U.S. Military's Greatest Advantage Is Dying a Slow Death
• Eleven bodies, some with signs of torture, found in Mexico's Veracruz
• Official: Yemen raid yields data on al-Qaida explosives
• Saudi king urges fight against terrorism on Indonesia trip
• Contamination of Lake Titicaca: Lake worshipped by Inca now littered with trash
• Google’s Assistant AI is available for all modern Android handsets right now
• Rights groups says Philippine police has falsified evidence
• Canadian bacteria-like fossils called oldest evidence of life
• Tornadoes leave a basement without a house in Missouri
• Taiwan Steps Up Patrols Amid China's Threats In South China Sea
• Mom Gets 50 Years for Giving Son, 5, Fatal Dose of Pills and Setting His Body on Fire
• ICE detains 'Dreamer' after she urged Trump to protect her
• Canada has seen jump in asylum seekers from US: officials
• Why Mercedes is confident it can pick up new customers
• This may be the battery tech that prevents the next Galaxy Note 7 disaster

President Oprah? President Zuckerberg? The rich and famous seem to be asking: Why not me? Posted: 01 Mar 2017 02:24 PM PST Once upon a time in America, being a rich celebrity was considered its own reward. No one suspected that anything was lacking in the lives of tech billionaires, Hollywood moguls or famous talk-show hosts. Then came Donald Trump, and suddenly the wealthiest .01 percent was confronted with a new standard of personal achievement to be measured against.

Trump’s address to Congress boasts of ‘new national pride’ sweeping nation Posted: 28 Feb 2017 09:36 PM PST In his first speech to a joint session of Congress, President Trump on Tuesday challenged divided lawmakers and a polarized nation to look past his turbulent early days in office and rally behind the "America First" vision of his history-making campaign. "A new national pride is sweeping across our nation," Trump declared to a packed House of Representatives at the outset of the hourlong address. The entrepreneur stayed true to many of the core messages of his insurgent and profoundly nationalist candidacy — blaming immigration and global trade for a range of ills, expressing resentment at the burdens of America's post-World War II global leadership, pushing for dismantling Obamacare — while dropping some of his most inflammatory rhetoric.

Feds: Criminal officers stole from the innocent in Baltimore Posted: 01 Mar 2017 03:46 PM PST BALTIMORE (AP) — Seven Baltimore officers were so unfazed by U.S. Justice Department scrutiny of abusive policing that they kept falsely detaining people, stealing their money and property and faking reports to cover it up, according to a damning federal indictment released Wednesday.

You May Not Even Need an iPhone 8 to Benefit From Its Best Feature Posted: 01 Mar 2017 12:06 PM PST Rumor has it the iPhone 8 will have USB Type-C port and that changes everything.

Teenager Killed by Car While Trying to Rescue Cat Cat That Was Hit by Car Posted: 01 Mar 2017 05:47 PM PST Emily Sanchez, 18 was trying to rescue a wounded cat when she was hit and killed by a car.

Yahoo says about 32 million accounts accessed using 'forged cookies' Posted: 01 Mar 2017 03:27 PM PST (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc , which disclosed two massive data breaches last year, said on Wednesday that about 32 million user accounts were accessed by intruders in the last two years using forged cookies. "Based on the investigation, we believe an unauthorized third party accessed the company's proprietary code to learn how to forge certain cookies," Yahoo said in its latest annual filing. Yahoo also said in December that data from more than 1 billion user accounts was compromised in August 2013, making it the largest breach in history.

China to cut 500,000 steel and coal jobs this year Posted: 01 Mar 2017 02:17 AM PST China said Wednesday it will cut 500,000 jobs in the steel and coal industries this year as it continues to trim excess capacity in the smokestack sectors amid a slowing economy. Minister of Human Resources Yin Weimin, in announcing the cuts at a press conference in Beijing, said the laid-off workers will enter a job placement programme or be offered early retirement. China makes more than half the world's steel, but an economic slowdown and sagging global demand has left the industry with massive overcapacity.

Donald Trump Is Tarnishing America’s Brand Posted: 01 Mar 2017 01:29 PM PST Donald Trump was a master at branding in his business career, but he seems to have left those skills in New York.

AG Sessions says he 'didn't recall' several times during press conference Posted: 02 Mar 2017 02:53 PM PST Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from any future investigation involving Russia and the 2016 Presidential Election. But throughout his press conference, he seemed to have a little trouble with his memory saying he "didn't recall" on several occasions.

Subway swears its chicken is chicken and releases its own study Posted: 02 Mar 2017 07:56 AM PST The subway chicken war isn't over. A poultry analysis of various fast food restaurants from CBC Marketplace last week found that Subway's chicken may actually contain less chicken DNA than one would hope. Obviously, Subway wasn't too pleased with this study, and after releasing multiple statements disputing the report and demanding the piece be retracted, it released its own study. The original CBC report conducted by Matt Harnden, a researcher at Trent University's Wildlife Forensic DNA Laboratory, found that the chicken used in some of Subway's wraps and sandwiches contains less than 50 percent chicken DNA, with the remaining majority being soy. Of the six sandwiches tested from various restaurants, Subway's oven roasted chicken and chicken strips were the worst offenders.  SEE ALSO: Taco Bell ditched the Naked Chicken Chalupa, so here's how to make your own "The stunningly flawed test by Marketplace is a tremendous disservice to our customers," said Suzanne Greco, Subway president and chief executive, in a statement issued to the Washington Post Wednesday night. "The allegation that our chicken is only 50 percent chicken is 100 percent wrong." So Subway released its own study conducted by two independent laboratories in order to test the chicken from Canada, the Post reports. The Subway studies evaluated the soy protein in the chicken samples, and found the plant protein to be less than 1 percent of the sample. CBC stood by its test results, posting the six page report for all to see on its site.  "Only the Subway samples had significant levels of plant DNA," the CBC wrote. The CBC also cited Robert Hanner,  biologist and associate director for the Canadian Barcode of Life Network at the University of Guelph in Ontario. "DNA tests do not lie (especially when conducted multiple times), and anyone with access to a DNA laboratory could perform these tests," Hanner wrote. The CBC also clarified part of its study, stating that "DNA tests don't reveal an exact percentage of the amount of chicken in the whole piece, but DNA experts have told Marketplace that the testing is a good indicator of the proportion of animal and plant DNA in the product." Subway declined to talk on camera about its study with CBC, and show where and how its chicken is made.  Subway did not immediately respond to request for comment and additional information.  UPDATE: March 2, 2017, 12:51 p.m. EST Subway provided the following statement in an email. BONUS: This parkour robot overlord has 'Terminator' written all over it

Suspects charged with murder in airport nerve agent attack Posted: 28 Feb 2017 08:47 PM PST KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Appearing calm and solemn, two young women accused of smearing VX nerve agent on Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half brother of North Korea's leader, were charged with murder Wednesday.

Photos of the day — February 28, 2017 Posted: 28 Feb 2017 05:41 PM PST Costumed revelers in protective helmets throw oranges during Carnival in the northern Italian Piedmont town of Ivrea, Italy; An Iraqi special forces soldier carries a woman injured during a battle between Iraqi forces and Islamic State fighters in Mosul, Iraq; and, Seagulls fly over the Bosphorus river while traffic has stopped due to the fog in Istanbul. These are just a few of the photos of the day for February 28, 2017. See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Tumblr.

The Latest: California snowpack nearing record depths Posted: 01 Mar 2017 01:38 PM PST PHILLIPS STATION, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on California's snowpack (all times local):

As US pressures Iran, parallel tensions grow between Israel and Hezbollah Posted: 01 Mar 2017 12:39 PM PST The calm that has prevailed for more than a decade along the Lebanon-Israel border is being rattled by a flurry of fiery warnings from both sides that has many here concerned another war between the Jewish state and Lebanon's Hezbollah organization may be drawing closer. Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has threatened to hit Israel's nuclear reactor should the Jewish state attack. The prospect of a mutually destructive war unleashed on Lebanon and Israel continues to act as a deterrence, but it remains perilously vulnerable to a miscalculation that could spiral into a conflict before either side can dial it back.

Ginsburg Skips Trump's Speech Posted: 28 Feb 2017 07:00 PM PST Ginsburg once called Trump a "faker." She didn't show up to his speech Tuesday.

Marine Le Pen loses EU parliament immunity over tweets Posted: 02 Mar 2017 09:26 AM PST By Francesco Guarascio BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union lawmakers lifted the EU parliamentary immunity of French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen on Thursday for tweeting pictures of Islamic State violence. Le Pen, who leads her National Front party in the European legislature, is under investigation in France for posting three graphic images of Islamic State executions on Twitter in December 2015, including the beheading of American journalist James Foley. Le Pen's immunity shielded her from prosecution.

Amazon finally explained what happened when it accidentally took down the internet Posted: 02 Mar 2017 11:58 AM PST The Amazon Simple Storage Service and Amazon Web Services, also known as S3 and AWS, happen to power a lot of the internet as you know it. And they're usually quite dependable, meaning that the companies using the solutions can rest assured that their websites will be up no matter what. But no internet service can have a 100% uptime rating, and the same goes for AWS. It was Amazon's AWS that failed on Tuesday, taking plenty of popular services and sites down with it. Now, Amazon has finally explained exactly what happened on Tuesday when it took down much of the web. In lengthy and rather technical note to customers, Amazon explained that an employee entered a command incorrectly and caused a chain of events that ultimately led to parts of the internet going bonkers. Amazon has protocols in place to fix downtime issues like these, but the problem was so ample that not even Amazon could fix it in a timely matter. That's why the outage lasted for several hours — well, technically it wasn't an outage since only subsets of AWS's complex architecture went down. "We build our systems with the assumption that things will occasionally fail, and we rely on the ability to remove and replace capacity as one of our core operational processes," Amazon said. "While this is an operation that we have relied on to maintain our systems since the launch of S3, we have not completely restarted the index subsystem or the placement subsystem in our larger regions for many years." The good news is that Amazon was able to restore order in the universe, and it's now looking to prevent this from ever happening again. If you want to read the entire explanation, check out Amazon's full post here.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Home Inspection Posted: 02 Mar 2017 06:48 AM PST According to data from the National Association of Realtors, in 2016, approximately 700,000 of the 6.1 million homes sold were new. A good way for homebuyers to be aware of potential problems with a home -- and gauge the potential costs -- is to have a home inspection. A home inspection by a certified professional provides a bit of assurance regarding the home's quality and the effectiveness of its key systems like air conditioning, heating, roof and more.

Cop Tackles Man Seen Hitting Police Station Windows With Baseball Bat Posted: 01 Mar 2017 05:40 AM PST The man is allegedly seen in surveillance footage trying to smash windows of a West Covina, Calif., police station.

Photos of the day - March 2, 2017 Posted: 02 Mar 2017 01:45 PM PST Tour guides wearing traditional Chinese dress practice smiling by biting chopsticks at Qingming Grand-River Park in Kaifeng, central China's Henan Province; Cheryl Kreiser of Silver Spring, Md. holds up a sign outside Justice Department,as she joined a group to protest Attorney General Jeff Sessions; and, An Iraqi special forces soldier fires a sniper rifle during a battle with Islamic State militants in Mosul, Iraq. These are just a few of the photos of the day for March 2, 2017. See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Tumblr.

Small Plane Crashes Into California Homes, Killing 3 People Posted: 01 Mar 2017 12:06 PM PST The twin-engine plane had five occupants.

Japan emperor to meet abandoned Vietnam families of soldiers Posted: 01 Mar 2017 04:16 AM PST HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Japan's emperor and empress, on a landmark visit to Vietnam, are expected to express their sympathies when they meet Thursday with Vietnamese women abandoned by their Japanese soldier husbands after World War II.

US drone kills two on motorbike in Pakistan: officials Posted: 02 Mar 2017 08:51 AM PST A US drone on Thursday killed two men riding a motorbike in Pakistan's northwest tribal region, officials said, the first such attack in the country under the administration of new American President Donald Trump. Drone strikes are extremely unpopular among many Pakistanis because they are seen as a violation of the country's sovereignty, although leaked documents have shown that Islamabad and Washington have secretly colluded over some cases in the past. The attack occurred in the Sara Khwa area of Kurram, one of seven so-called tribal districts that lie along the border with Afghanistan, where Pakistan has been battling a homegrown Islamist insurgency for more than a decade and a half.

Canada, U.S. join forces on tackling border asylum-seekers Posted: 01 Mar 2017 03:36 PM PST By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian and U.S. officials are working on a plan to tackle asylum seekers crossing into Canada illegally, with American officials keen to discover how they entered the United States in the first place, said a source familiar with the matter. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly is set to visit Canada this month for talks on the border and the influx of people, said the source, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Hundreds of people, mainly from Africa but also the Middle East, have walked across the border, seeking asylum.

Spoiler Alert: Subway chicken sandwiches are only 50% chicken, but they’re still 100% delicious Posted: 01 Mar 2017 01:33 PM PST As a sandwich aficionado, I've always hated the fact that Subway tends to get a bad rap. Because the company has franchises everywhere, and because most everything on the Subway menu is pretty cheap, people tend to dismiss the sandwich chain as 'low-rent' compared to some pricier and less tastier options. To be perfectly honest, and at the risk of embarrassing myself, I've long been a staunch Subway defender and apologist. When someone a few years ago discovered that Subway bread contains azodicarbonamide, a chemical found in yoga mats, I said nothing. After all, far be it from me to judge the chemical composition of tasty bread. If anything, the news made me look at yoga mats in a whole new light. More recently, when Subway was caught ripping off consumers by selling 11-inch bread while advertising footlong sandwiches, I, once again, said nothing. Alas, the latest controversy involving my beloved sandwich chain has prompted me to speak up. It pains me to say it, but Subway has finally gone too far. According to a troubling report from the CBC, DNA testing on Subway's oven-roasted chicken found that the patty only contains about 50% chicken. As for what comprises the remaining 50%, well, let's just say I'd rather not know. The oven-roasted chicken, though, wasn't the only offending item on Subway's menu. Similar DNA testing found Subway's Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki strips are only 42% chicken. While it's not realistic to expect a menu item at a fast food joint to be 100% pure chicken -- marinades and other add-ons can easily dilute the results -- 40% is simply inexcusable. Subway's performance here is even more glaring given that chicken dishes tested at other fast food establishments scored much higher. McDonald's grilled Country Chicken sandwich, for example, was found to be about 85% chicken. Subway has since come out and refuted the CBC's findings, while at the same time promising to look into the matter. "The accusations made by CBC Marketplace about the content of our chicken are absolutely false and misleading," Subway said in a statement provided to Consumer Affairs. "Our chicken is 100% white meat with seasonings, marinated and delivered to our stores as a finished, cooked product. "We have advised them of our strong objections," the statement adds. "We do not know how they produced such unreliable and factually incorrect data, but we are insisting on a full retraction. Producing high quality food for our customers is our highest priority. This report is wrong and it must be corrected." As for me, the report has forced me to look at Subway in a whole new light. I'm not going to stop eating there -- that would be downright crazy -- but I might just stick with the tuna from now on. What can I say, I like to live dangerously.

Apple Wins $533 Million Patent Case Posted: 02 Mar 2017 04:04 AM PST On Wednesday, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., reversed a jury verdict accusing Apple of infringing upon Smartflash's intellectual property rights.

The Latest: 1 of 3 slain teens had feuded with gang member Posted: 02 Mar 2017 11:24 AM PST CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — The Latest on gang members indicted in the killings of three teenagers on Long Island last year (all times local):

Scientists are firing lasers at dinosaur fossils, and the result is awesome Posted: 01 Mar 2017 08:21 AM PST Scientists are one step closer to figuring out what dinosaurs actually looked like—and they're doing it by pointing laser beams at dinosaur fossils to show previously unknown features and details, including the actual fleshy outlines of prehistoric creatures. In a new study, researchers focused the technique on the Anchiornis, a small feathered dinosaur that lived in the late Jurassic period. SEE ALSO: A dinosaur-era reptile popped out babies, not eggs Due to the animal's drumstick-shaped legs and bird-like arms, revealed by the lasers, researchers think the Anchiornis might have been able to fly. The discovery offers another link in how modern-day birds may have evolved from their predecessors, according to the study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.  Image: Julius T. Csotonyi The Anchiornis, whose name means "near bird," was the size of a raven and lived about a 160 million years ago. By laser-scanning nine of the Anchiornis's fossil fragments, scientists found their bodies showed remarkable similarities to modern birds. " Anchiornis is especially suited for this study, because its contribution to understanding avian and flight origins has not been fully realized," the team wrote in the paper. Researchers also found that the Anchiornis had arms with patagia, a membrane that covers a limb and forms a wing—as with bats—that is necessary for gliding or flying. "What our work does underscore is the broad extent to which bird-like dinosaurs were experimenting with their anatomy and functional capabilities before we had the first unequivocal gliding and flying birds," Michael Pittman, the study's lead researcher and a paleontologist at the University of Hong Kong, told National Geographic .  BONUS: Tremendous 122-foot titanosaur is unveiled at Museum of Natural History

The U.S. Military's Greatest Advantage Is Dying a Slow Death Posted: 01 Mar 2017 12:09 PM PST And a new idea could revive it, but that's only half the battle.

Eleven bodies, some with signs of torture, found in Mexico's Veracruz Posted: 01 Mar 2017 03:32 PM PST Eleven bodies were found near a tourist area in the Mexican state of Veracruz on Wednesday, a day after the government said it would send federal police to calm one of the most violent regions of the country. After years of falling homicide levels, Mexico is suffering a deteriorating security situation not seen since former president Felipe Calderon announced a war on drug gangs in 2007. In 2016, more than 20,000 homicides were reported, the highest level registered since Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto took office in 2012.

Official: Yemen raid yields data on al-Qaida explosives Posted: 28 Feb 2017 07:54 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. special operations forces gathered valuable intelligence on the al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen in a raid last month, including data on the explosives they're manufacturing and the types of threats they're developing, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday.

Saudi king urges fight against terrorism on Indonesia trip Posted: 02 Mar 2017 12:55 AM PST Saudi Arabia's King Salman called Thursday for a united fight against terrorism in a speech to Indonesia's parliament during a landmark state visit to the world's most populous Muslim-majority country. The king is making the first visit by a Saudi monarch to Indonesia in almost 50 years as part of a tour of Asia, accompanied by a 1,000-strong delegation and hundreds of tons of luggage. In a speech to hundreds of people at the legislature in the capital Jakarta, he called for an intensified fight against terrorism.

Contamination of Lake Titicaca: Lake worshipped by Inca now littered with trash Posted: 02 Mar 2017 09:18 AM PST Tucked between snow-capped mountains, Lake Titicaca was once worshipped by the Incas, who proclaimed its deep blue waters the birthplace of the sun. The steady deterioration of the prized tourist destination has caused a rash of health problems among the 1.3 million people in Peru and Bolivia living near Lake Titicaca's polluted banks. "If the frogs could talk they would say, 'This is killing me,'" said Maruja Inquilla, a local environmental activist who recently showed up at the Puno governor's house carrying plastic bags filled with hundreds of dead frogs in protest.

Google’s Assistant AI is available for all modern Android handsets right now Posted: 02 Mar 2017 10:11 AM PST Remember the flood of Amazon Alexa news coming from CES 2017 in early January? Everyone wanted a piece of Amazon's voice technology, including companies that made Android devices, which you'd expect to get support for Google Assistant before anything else. Well, the Amazon buzz wasn't nearly as strong as the biggest mobile show in town. Sunday was packed with press conferences, and everyone was announcing support for Google Assistant. Something strange was happening. It all started with the LG G6, at which point I thought Google was choosing select partners to bring its Google Assistant to more devices. Soon after than Huawei announced that the P10 line would get it. Then, Nokia, Motorola, and Sony followed, saying that their brand new handsets will also get Google Assistant integration. Google even made special appearances during some of these press events, to talk about some of its Android features, including Google Assistant. It didn't take long for it to become clear, all these upcoming handsets will feature Google Assistant integration out of the box. This is something Google wants, and Google will have it. Why hasn't Google launched its Assistant on other devices aside from the Pixel? For some reason, it wasn't apparently ready to do it. But it is now. On Thursday, the final day of MWC 2017, Google made it official: all Marshmallow and Nougat devices will get Google Assistant support, not just the brand new ones coming out of the show. Google did not make a big fuss about Google Assistant at the show, although it did announce that Google Assistant will be available to try out on a variety of devices at its Android Village. On the other hand, MWC attendees probably got the idea as soon as the Congress kicked off last Sunday and they got to try more and more devices. A hard press on that home button would constantly bring up the Assistant, signaling that something big is happening. You didn't need to see Google's announcement to know something was going on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_BeK48-Bzc What matters now is that everyone who's on a fairly new device will be able to use it. Google posted a video on Thursday to inform the masses about the roll out. And I can't but observe that the timing of this Google initiative could not be better. Samsung is rumored to bring to life a brand new advanced assistant for the Galaxy S8 called Bixby. By the time it launches, however, Google Assistant should also be enabled on the Galaxy S8. Google did mention Samsung specifically in its announcement. How do you install Assistant on your smartphone or tablet? You don't. You just update Google Play Services, and Assistant will come to you. If you want to use it, that is. You can also disable it if you find the whole concept too creepy for your taste. Android Wear 2 will also get the feature, and TVs and cars will follow.

Rights groups says Philippine police has falsified evidence Posted: 02 Mar 2017 12:29 AM PST MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A human rights watchdog on Thursday accused the police in the Philippines of falsifying evidence to justify unlawful killings in the government's war on drugs that has caused more than 7,000 deaths, and pointed the finger at President Rodrigo Duterte as being ultimately responsible.

Canadian bacteria-like fossils called oldest evidence of life Posted: 01 Mar 2017 10:08 AM PST By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Microfossils up to almost 4.3 billion years old found in Canada of microbes are similar to the bacteria that thrive today around sea floor hydrothermal vents and may represent the oldest-known evidence of life on Earth, scientists said on Wednesday. The fossils from the Hudson Bay shoreline in northern Quebec near the Nastapoka Islands lend credence to the hypothesis that hydrothermal vents spewing hot water may have been the cradle of life on Earth relatively soon after the planet formed, the researchers said. Tiny filaments and tubes made of a form of iron oxide, or rust, formed by the microbes were found encased in layers of quartz that experts have determined to be between 3.77 billion and 4.28 billion years old, according to the study published in the journal Nature.

Tornadoes leave a basement without a house in Missouri Posted: 01 Mar 2017 12:50 PM PST ABC News' Phillip Mena shows the devastation in Perryville, Missouri, where a house has been completely swept away by tornadoes.

Taiwan Steps Up Patrols Amid China's Threats In South China Sea Posted: 02 Mar 2017 01:15 AM PST China's military activities in the disputed waters are being perceived as a threat by several Southeast Asian countries and the West.

Mom Gets 50 Years for Giving Son, 5, Fatal Dose of Pills and Setting His Body on Fire Posted: 02 Mar 2017 11:04 AM PST Narges Shafeirad pleaded guilty last year to feeding her 5-year-old son, Daniel Dana, a fatal dose of antihistamines.

ICE detains 'Dreamer' after she urged Trump to protect her Posted: 01 Mar 2017 04:07 PM PST JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A young woman in the process of renewing her permission as a "Dreamer" to remain in the United States legally was arrested Wednesday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after speaking at a press conference where she urged President Donald Trump to protect people like her. Now two Democratic senators want answers.

Canada has seen jump in asylum seekers from US: officials Posted: 02 Mar 2017 10:20 AM PST The number of migrants applying for refugee status in Canada after crossing the border from the United States has been rising since the beginning of the year, officials said Thursday. "Canada has seen an increase in the number of asylum claims in January of this year, compared to the same time last year," the Canada Border Services Agency told a briefing. From January 1 to February 21, a total of about 4,000 people filed refugee claims, up from 2,500 during the same period last year.

Why Mercedes is confident it can pick up new customers Posted: 01 Mar 2017 05:26 AM PST It's taken 130 years for Mercedes-Benz to launch its first true pickup truck, yet when the X-Class officially goes on sale this year, following what the company describes as a "nine-figure investment," it is extremely confident of success. "We want to offer customers vehicles matching their specific needs," said Dr Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Daimler AG. In 2016, 4.86 million people decided to pick up a pickup and 986,773 of them went for a Ford F-Series and a further 222,533 for its smaller brother, the Ford Ranger.

This may be the battery tech that prevents the next Galaxy Note 7 disaster Posted: 02 Mar 2017 11:04 AM PST Samsung has retrieved about 98% of the 3 million defective Galaxy Note 7 units it shipped in the short time span between the phone's official launch last August and its swift demise in October. But on my way to Mobile World Congress, flight attendants still insisted over the plane's speaker system that Galaxy Note 7 use on board the flight is strictly forbidden, and anyone carrying such a device should inform the crew. That's what fear of a potentially exploding device will do to an airline. Samsung may have "fixed" its massive debacle, but there's still concern related to the few Galaxy Note 7 units that may be lurking around. It's not just Galaxy Note 7 batteries that explode, either. In fact, anything powered by a Lithium battery can explode following an incident that causes a short circuit — just check out this video of a smoldering iPhone 7 that went viral, prompting Apple to investigate. Thankfully, there are nascent technologies out there that could prevent future disasters like the Galaxy Note 7, and I got to speak with one company that aims to prolong battery life on devices while making them even more safe. Qnovo is a familiar name to some people, especially Sony handset fans who purchased one of Sony's Android phones last year. The surprising Xperia XZ Premium phone (above) that Sony announced at MWC 2017 also ships with Qnovo adaptive charging support, a technology that's supposed to prolong the battery life of the handset. Qnovo analyzes charging data coming from the phone's battery to extend its lifespan and increase safety. Qnovo's algorithms take into account real-time readings to determine how a battery is operating at any given moment, and to optimize battery charging. The software actively changes charging parameters such as charging rate and current to prevent battery degradation during fast-charging sessions. Monitoring the data and comparing the battery's performance against lab measurements for a specific battery might be incredibly useful resources to smartphone makers. The software can determine whether a phone is charging normally, or whether there's a short circuit inside the battery, a detail that's not apparent to the user, but that can be responsible for explosions and fires. Smartphone makers are looking to provide bigger capacity batteries (see the Galaxy Note 7), faster charging technology (see Meizu's brand new innovation), and longer battery life for high-end devices that do not ship with user-replaceable batteries (see Sony's Xperia XZ Premium). Qnovo says its tech can help with all that. The firm has so far included its adaptive charging tech only in Sony smartphones starting with the Xperia X flagship that was unveiled here in Barcelona last year. But things may change in the future. Qnovo would not tell me whether it partnered with other smartphone makers, but a recent announcement from the firm seems to be pretty revealing. Qnovo announced in early February that the Snapdragon 835 processor will be the first chip to support Qnovo's adaptive charging. That's the chip expected to power a variety of flagship Android handsets this year including the Sony XZ Premium, the Samsung Galaxy S8, and many others. The chip already supports Qualcomm's Quick Charge 4.0 technology that should further reduce charge times. Qnovo's tech, meanwhile, could increase the battery lifespan up to twice what you would usually expect from a phone battery. As I understood it, Qnovo's algorithms would work on any smartphone, not just flagship phones. They do not require any additional components to measure the performance of the battery; it's all done using software that extracts real-time frequency data as the battery is charging. But the new Snapdragon 835 chip will provide additional hardware acceleration for Qnovo's software, which should ensure even better battery performance. In addition to monitoring battery charging, Qnovo is able to detect the formation of lithium metal plating during charging. Whether caused by manufacturing defects or accidents, that's the kind of chemical process that can occur in any battery and ultimately lead to short circuits. This real-time battery monitoring technology could also be used to power down a device whose battery may pose a risk to the user, Qnovo said, giving OEMs a solution to prevent imminent battery failures. Will more Android device makers, and even the iPhone, adopt Qnovo or similar solutions in the near future? We'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, the only sure way to completely eliminate the risk of exploding batteries might be developing non-lithium batteries that can't explode. Hopefully, someone is inventing that battery as we speak.

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