SAN FRANCISCO: OpenAI on Thursday beefed up its ChatGPT generative AI chatbot with search engine capabilities, as the startup takes on Google’s decades-long dominance of finding answers on the web. With the update, “you can get fast, timely answers with links to relevant web sources, which you would have previously
VALENCIA (Spain): Spain mourned at least 158 deaths on Thursday and authorities told people in floodstricken regions to stay at home as rescuers raced to find survivors in the rare disaster. An exceptionally powerful Mediterranean storm from Tuesday unleashed heavy rains and torrents of mud-filled water that swept away people
YILAN (Taiwan): Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris in Taiwan on Friday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the island in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing wind speeds of 184 kilometres an hour when it slammed into eastern Taiwan
HONG KONG: Asian stocks were mostly down on Thursday following a weak lead from Wall Street, though better-than-expected manufacturing data from China provided a glimmer of good news for local markets. The three main US stock indices lost ground on Wednesday, and Asian investors appeared to be in a risk-averse
TOKYO: It’s usually a serene two-and-a-half-hour ride on Japan’s famously efficient bullet train. But the journey quickly descended into a zombie apocalypse, with passengers screaming in terror. Organisers of Saturday’s adrenaline-filled trip, less than two weeks before Halloween, touted it as the “world’s first haunted house experience on a running
JAKARTA: Former general Prabowo Subianto was sworn in Sunday as president of Indonesia, seeking a more prominent position on the global stage for the world’s fourth most populous nation. The 73-year-old fiery nationalist — accused of rights abuses during his time in the military — took the oath at parliament
TOKYO: Thousands of thankful, sobbing fans flocked to a Tokyo zoo Saturday to bid an emotional farewell to a pair of beloved pandas before their imminent return to China. Sporting T-shirts, hats and sun umbrellas featuring the black and white bears, visitors shed tears, took selfies and eagerly waved at
BEIRUT: Israel’s military pounded targets in south and east Lebanon on Monday and said more strikes were coming, warning Lebanese to stay out of harm’s way despite international calls for restraint. Hezbollah has said it is ready for “all military possibilities”. Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, made
WAJIMA (Japan): Rescuers combed the debris-strewn banks of a river in central Japan on Monday, searching for drowning victims after homes were swept away in flooding and landslides that claimed at least seven lives. The river on the Noto Peninsula — an area still reeling from a devastating earthquake in
ENDARASHA (Kenya): Seventeen boys were confirmed dead and 70 missing after a fire tore through a primary school dormitory in central Kenya, officials said Friday, leaving distraught relatives desperate for news of their loved ones. The blaze at the Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri county broke out around midnight, engulfing