Miscellaneous

Washington, Feb 20: Adolf Hitler's personal telephone, which the Fuehrer used to dictate many of his deadly World War II commands, sold at auction for USD 243,000, the US house selling it announced. Originally a black Bakelite phone, later painted crimson and engraved with Hitler's name, the relic was found in the Nazi leader's Berlin bunker in 1945 following the regime's defeat. The auction house

Washington, Feb 19: Robots that steal human jobs should pay taxes, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates has said. "Certainly there will be taxes that relate to automation. Right now, the human worker who does, say, USD 50,000 worth of work in a factory, that income is taxed and you get income tax, social security tax, all those things," Gates told Quartz website. "If a robot comes in

Feb 18: Global tech giant IBM on Thursday said working on cognitive computing that helps in decision making is the future for India, which is already a leader in information technology. "As a country, India has been digitising and digitising the world. The foundation is in place. Digital is the foundation. India's next path is to now make the world cognitive. That would be the difference maker,"

Washington, Feb 18: Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have harvested the first crop of Chinese cabbage after spending nearly a month tending to the leafy greens, according to NASA. While the space station crew will get to eat some of the Tokyo Bekana Chinese cabbage harvested by astronaut Peggy Whitson, the rest is being saved for scientific study back at NASA's Kennedy Space

London, Feb 18: Gold crept higher on Friday as investors opted for the safe haven qualities of bullion due to uncertainty about US and European politics as well as the direction of stock markets. Global equity markets lost momentum after setting record highs in the previous two sessions, partly due to disquiet about the policies of US President Donald Trump. “Gold is close to its recent multi

Seoul, Feb 17: The heir of South Korean giant Samsung was today arrested as part of a probe into corruption and influence-peddling that caused President Park Geun-Hye to be impeached. "It is acknowledged that it is necessary to arrest (Lee Jae-Yong) in light of a newly added criminal charge and new evidence," a court spokesman said in a statement. Lee Jae-Yong, Samsung Electronics vice chairman

New York, Feb 17: Last month was the third warmest January in 137 years of modern record-keeping, according to a monthly analysis of global temperatures by Nasa scientists. Last month"s temperature was 0.20 degrees Celsius cooler than the warmest January in 2016. However, it was 0.92 degrees Celsius warmer than the mean January temperature from 1951-1980. Two of the three top January temperature

Feb 17: In November last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stunned the country by announcing that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were as good as garbage. Despite his insistence that the ban was meant to curb black money and put terrorists out of business, many analysts said it was motivated by politics rather than economics, and done with an eye on the Uttar Pradesh (UP) elections. Since the rise of

Geneva, Feb 16: Using smartphones, laptops and other technology to work from home may help you do away with rush hour traffic, but also lead to longer working hours, higher stress and sleeping problems, according to a new UN study in 15 countries including India. "This report shows that the use of modern communication technologies facilitates a better overall work-life balance," said Jon Messenger

Paris, Feb 16: The world's oceans have lost more than two per cent of their oxygen since 1960, with potentially devastating consequences for sea plants and animals, marine scientists said Wednesday. In those five and a half decades, parts of the oceans devoid of oxygen, called anoxic waters, have quadrupled, said a study in the science journal Nature. And the production and flow of nitrous oxide