Friday, 6 February 2026

Author: AFP

Ronaldo tops Forbes list again

PARIS, France: Portugal great Cristiano Ronaldo once again topped the Forbes highest-paid footballers list for the 2025-26 season, as one of three members of the top 10 plying their trade in Saudi Arabia. It is the sixth time in the last decade that Ronaldo has topped the Forbes list and

Kluivert parts way with Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia: Patrick Kluivert’s stint as the Indonesian soccer team’s coach is over after they “mutually” agreed to part ways Thursday following a failed bid to reach the World Cup. Indonesia’s hopes of qualifying for the tournament in North America next year ended with defeats to Iraq and Saudi Arabia

Scam centres booming despite crackdown

MAE SOT (Thailand): Scam operations in Myanmar, blamed for defrauding victims worldwide of billions of dollars, appear to be expanding again despite earlier joint crackdowns, an AFP investigation has revealed. Satellite images and drone footage show new buildings and Starlink satellite dishes rapidly appearing inside guarded compounds near Myawaddy, along

1,000 S. Koreans work in scam centres

SEOUL: About 1,000 South Koreans are believed to be working in online scam operations in Cambodia, Seoul said yesterday, with the country shaken by the torture and killing of a college student. South Korea will send a special team to the Southeast Asian country later yesterday to discuss cases of fake

Abu Dhabi launches virtual marriage for all

DUBAI (United Arab Emirates): Couples from anywhere in the world can now get married using the Abu Dhabi government’s app without even setting foot in the emirate, the head of the project told AFP on Tuesday. The idea of online marriage is still in its infancy, with Ukraine launching a

Trio wins economics Nobel

STOCKHOLM (Sweden): The Nobel prize in economics was awarded on Monday to American-Israeli Joel Mokyr, France’s Philippe Aghion and Canada’s Peter Howitt for work on how technology drives and affects growth. Mokyr, 79, won one half of the prize “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress”,

At least 64 dead, 65 missing in floods

TENANGO DE DORIA (Mexico): Rescuers scrambled Monday to reach people cut off by devastating floods that have claimed 64 lives in central and eastern Mexico, with another 65 reported missing. Torrential rains battered several Mexican states over several days last week, turning village streets into rivers, triggering landslides and sweeping

California requires AI chatbot safety measures

SAN FRANCISCO: California has become the first US state to pass a law regulating artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, with Governor Gavin Newsom signing the groundbreaking legislation on Monday.  The move defies White House efforts to prevent individual states from setting their own AI rules, and aims to address the growing

Nobel economist warns of AI dangers

WASHINGTON: A winner of this year’s Nobel prize in economics warned Monday that artificial intelligence offers “amazing possibilities” but should be regulated because of its job-destroying potential. The remarks from Canadian Peter Howitt, professor emeritus at Brown University in the United States, came amid growing concerns about how AI will impact

China slams Dutch intervention of Wingtech

BEIJING: China’s leading state-backed semiconductor association said yesterday it “firmly opposes” Dutch authorities intervening over a European subsidiary of Chinese chip firm Wingtech. The Netherlands invoked the Goods Availability Act to take control of Dutch-based chip maker Nexperia in late September, citing national security concerns, a statement published by the