WORLD

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | An underwater villa will be opening in the Maldives this year. It sounds like a dream. Guests of the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island will soon be able to sleep with the fish in a stunning new residence immersed 16.4 feet under the Indian Ocean. …

Washington, United States | AFP | Facebook’s new focus on protecting private user data is likely to change the game for many campaigns, making it harder to deliver highly targeted, personal political messages. The changes unveiled by the huge social network following an outcry over the hijacking of data on …

Seoul, South Korea | AFP | North Korea promised to close its atomic test site next month and invite US weapons experts to the country, Seoul said Sunday, as US President Donald Trump expressed optimism about securing a nuclear deal with the secretive regime. The reported pledge from Kim Jong …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The world’s most faithful male is – well, a bird. Apparently, every year, for the past 16 years, the stork has flown 14,000 km from his winter home in South Africa to a small village in Croatia, Europe, to be with his handicapped mate, who …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A professor in the small Moroccan city of Sidi Slimane recently had his whole world turned upside down by an urologist. He was undergoing a routine health checkup when he was told that he had been sterile for most of his life. But there was …

Paris, France | AFP | Since the world’s first successful organ transplant in 1954 — a kidney — the discipline has advanced to the point where a wounded soldier could have his penis and scrotum replaced in a groundbreaking operation last month. A Frenchman recently became the first person to …

Yangon, Myanmar | AFP | Thousands of people have fled renewed fighting between Myanmar’s army and ethnic insurgents in the country’s remote north, a United Nations official said, as a long-simmering conflict intensifies. More than 4,000 people have been displaced in the country’s northernmost state of Kachin near the border …

Paris, France | AFP | US-based researchers have successfully kept alive the brain cells of decapitated pigs for 36 hours, sparking concerns over the ethics involved in such frontline research. The MIT Technology Review said a team at Yale University led by neuro-scientist Nenad Sestan had carried out experiments on …

Beijing, China | AFP | A knife-wielding man with a grudge killed nine middle school children and injured at least 10 others as they returned home in northern China on Friday, authorities said, in one of the deadliest such rampages in the country in recent years. The 28-year-old suspect was …

New York, United States | AFP | For Generation X, “The Karate Kid” is a pop culture touchstone. Now, more than 30 years on, YouTube wants to bring a new generation into the dojo. Thirteen years after its creation, the wildly popular video-sharing platform is rolling out its first major …