You can dunk Samsung’s new smartphones in water, but don’t drop them on a sidewalk, a new study finds. SquareTrade, a company that offers extended-protection plans for gadgets, said the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge still functioned after being submerged in water for 30 minutes. Audio was “permanently muffled and… Read More
Mad science? An alarming proposal for stopping Zika virus spread
The spread of the Zika virus in Latin America is giving a boost to a British biotech firm’s proposal to deploy a genetically modified mosquito to try to stop transmission of the disease. Oxitec has genetically modified the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which also transmits dengue and chikungunya, so the males… Read More
North Korea launches increased cyber attacks
South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers Friday that the number of North Korean cyber attacks on the South has doubled over the past month. The National Intelligence Service told a parliamentary committee meeting that the North unsuccessfully tried to hack into the railway control system and computer networks of financial… Read More
Out of order! Lawyer, investigator brawl in court house
An Orange County defense attorney suffered a bloodied face and fractured nose after a brawl with a district attorney’s investigator in a courthouse hallway, his lawyer said. James Crawford was speaking with a witness in the courthouse Wednesday morning when an investigator asked him who he was and called defense… Read More
Death toll in Turkey terror attack rises to 37
Turkey’s air force hit Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq on Monday, hours after a suicide car bombing in the capital killed 37 people and heightened tensions with the militants. Nine F-16s and two F-4 jets raided 18 positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq, including… Read More
Man attacks, kills Iditarod sled dog
A man suspected of intentionally driving a snowmobile into teams of two mushers near the front of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race was arrested Saturday in a Yukon River village. Arnold Demoski, 26, of Nulato was arrested on suspicion of assault, reckless endangerment, reckless driving and six counts of… Read More
20 injured in train derailment in Kansas
An Amtrak train has derailed in southwest Kansas, sending about 20 people to the hospital. An Amtrak statement says the train was traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago early Monday when it derailed just after midnight about 20 miles west of Dodge City. Kansas Highway Patrol communication specialist Patricia Munford… Read More
GM advancing “driverless” car tech
With hopes of speeding development of self-driving cars, General Motors has acquired a small software company that’s been testing vehicles on the streets of San Francisco. The Detroit automaker says it purchased Cruise Automation, a 40-person firm that was founded just three years ago. The move, coupled with GM’s in-house… Read More
Mystery surrounds beating death of Putin’s ex-aide
A day after authorities in Washington confirmed an autopsy shows blunt force trauma caused the death of a former aide to the Russian president, Russian officials say they’ve been requesting information about the probe without results. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a Facebook post Friday that the Russian… Read More
Busted! Hillary caught cheating, fixing debate
The race for the Democratic presidential nomination is heating up and following Wednesday’s Democratic debate, supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are crying foul. Several sources are reporting a claim by Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cheated during the debate. And that’s not… Read More