Life sentence sought for Abe shooter Yamagami
WorldNARA -- Japanese public prosecutors sought a life sentence Thursday for defendant Tetsuya Yamagami on charges of murdering former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with a homemade gun in 2022.
Over half of deepfakes with under-18 victims made by classmates
WorldTOKYO -- More than half of cases reported to Japanese police of sexual deepfakes targeting those aged under 18 were created with the involvement of students from the same schools as the victims, National Police Agency data have shown.
Winners of 2026 World Cup to pocket $50 million in prize money
WorldPARIS, France -- The winners of the 2026 World Cup will receive $50 million in prize money as part of a record financial contribution for the tournament from FIFA, world football's governing body announced on Wednesday.
Soccer-Bigger or better? The beautiful game's growth knows no bounds
WorldLONDON -- Bigger does not always mean better but try telling that to those who govern the world's most popular sport as they reflect on a jam-packed year and begin the countdown to a super-sized World Cup that will dwarf previous tournaments.
ECB to hold rates steady as euro zone economy shows resilience
WorldFRANKFURT - The European Central Bank is widely expected to keep its policy rates steady on Thursday and signal little appetite for cuts in the near term as the euro zone economy holds its ground in the face of global trade shocks and inflation remains stable.
With freebies, OpenAI, Google vie for Indian users and training data
WorldBENGALURU -- OpenAI, Google and Perplexity have begun an unprecedented fight for artificial intelligence users in India, rolling out freebies in a strategy seen as a way to harvest troves of multilingual training data in the world's most populous nation.
Europe's auto industry future may be electric even after EU climbdown
WorldBrussels' proposal to abandon a 2035 deadline for a total shift to fully electric driving allows Europe's legacy carmakers more time to sell hybrids, but for the longer term, EVs are still the future, analysts and experts said.
Desert storm: Can data centres slake their insatiable thirst for water?
WorldSurging use of AI has led to a frenzy of construction activity to build new data centres, particularly in the U.S. Estimates put the total number of these facilities in operation worldwide this year at 6,111, with upwards of 2,000 more set to come online by 2030.
Indonesian employers group says proposed minimum wage rise is too high
WorldIndonesia's provincial minimum wage would rise by 5.3% to 7.3% next year under a new government formula, an increase that businesses think is too high, an official at employers association APINDO said on Wednesday.
Oscars to stream exclusively on YouTube from 2029
WorldThe Oscars will be shown only on YouTube from 2029, the Academy said Wednesday, in a radical gambit for a movie industry that remains wary of streaming platforms even as viewing habits shift online.
