China is seeking an international agreement to enhance state control over the internet in order to fight cyberattacks and cyberterrorism. Beijing wants to extend the existing idea of sovereignty over land and sea to cyberspace. Beijing has released its first white paper discussing how it will persuade different countries to …

Powered exoskeletons may help people with weak muscles move better. Exoskeletons are often made from metal, which means their joints are rigid. Now researchers at a university in Switzerland are working on flexible, rubber robots that could replace the metal joints in exoskeletons, making them far more flexible. VOA’s Deborah …

Nike will launch a hijab for female Muslim athletes early next year, becoming the first major sports apparel maker to offer a traditional Islamic head scarf designed specifically for competition, the company said on Wednesday. The head covering, marketed under the “Pro Hijab” brand, is designed to allow athletes to …

Major technology firms say they are moving to fix any vulnerabilities in their operating systems, a day after WikiLeaks released documents pertaining to an alleged CIA hacking arsenal capable of spying on people through microphones in mobile phones and other electronic devices, such as smart televisions. In a statement issued …

The world needs an international treaty to protect people’s privacy from unfettered cybersurveillance, which is being pushed by populist politicians preying on fear of terrorism, according to a U.N. report debated on Wednesday. The report, submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council by the U.N. independent expert on privacy, Joe …

When the Trump administration issued its executive order in Janurary restricting travelers from certain countries, many tech companies and their employees were quick to express their objections. But now, with the new executive order out limiting travel to the U.S. for people from six countries, the response from Silicon Valley …

Staying up late into the night, Lilia Lobato Martinez watched endless YouTube videos to teach herself the computer code she used to help build her prize-winning Ool app for volunteers in Guadalajara, Mexico. In her country, she is usually the only woman in tech competitions, which often hand out men’s …

A German court rejected a temporary injunction against Facebook on Tuesday in a case brought by a Syrian refugee who sued the social networking site for failing to remove faked posts linking him to crimes and militant attacks. The Wuerzburg district court said in a preliminary ruling that Facebook is …

Facebook has launched a tool it says will help flag so-called fake news. The tool adds a “disputed news” flag on stories that have been deemed fake by what Facebook says are third parties, including Snopes, Politifact and Factcheck.org. Facebook announced the disputed news flag in December, but it appears …

From lasers that cut denim at a factory, to drones that irrigate crops, it’s not a new story that machines are doing more work than ever. But people have long feared that robots are coming for their jobs, so technology evangelists now are calling on their peers to build a …

A pair of $250,000 autonomous buses began driving around an empty San Francisco Bay Area parking lot on Monday, preparing to move onto a local public road in California’s first pilot program for a self-driving vehicle without steering wheel or human operator. California and other states are weighing the opportunities …

Young adults who spend a lot of time looking for social connections on social media could instead find themselves feeling socially isolated, a new study suggests. Researchers looked at the social media habits of 1,787 American adults aged 19 to 32, asking them how much they used 11 popular social …

Oil and gas companies, including some of the most celebrated industry names in the Houston area, are facing increasingly sophisticated hackers seeking to steal trade secrets and disrupt operations, according to a newspaper investigation. A stretch of the Gulf Coast near Houston features one of the largest concentrations of refineries, …

Twitter introduced new safety measures this week meant to crack down on online harassment and protect people from viewing offensive material, but some free-speech advocates are concerned the changes could lead to censorship of unpopular ideas. The social media company announced Wednesday that it would start hiding potentially menacing tweets, …

Scientists and engineers are constantly looking for more efficient ways to harvest energy from sustainable sources, such as the sun, wind, ocean waves and river flows. Researchers from Brown University have teamed up with a company from Rhode Island to build an innovative power generator suitable for slow-flowing rivers and …

We are in the midst of a mobile tech revolution that promises to change the way we live, say industry experts at this week’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, where the ‘Internet of Things’ and superfast 5G technologies are all the rage. But even the most basic mobile …

We are in the midst of a mobile tech revolution that promises to change the way we live, say industry experts at this week’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, where ‘Internet of Things’ and superfast 5G technologies are all the rage. But even the most basic mobile technology …

Amazon.com has launched a new program to help students build capabilities into its voice-controlled assistant Alexa, the company told Reuters, the latest move by a technology firm to nurture ideas and talent in artificial intelligence research. The e-commerce company said it was paying for a yearlong doctoral fellowship at four …

Smartphones have replaced lots of other accessories — cameras, flashlights, calculators. But many people are still reluctant to swap the wallets in their pockets for their digital counterparts. A key reason consumers are hesitant to adopt mobile payment systems like Apple Pay and Android Pay, surveys say, is fear about …

Researchers at Egypt’s Nile University are developing a way to turn dried shrimp shells that would otherwise be thrown away into thin films of biodegradable plastic they hope will be used to make eco-friendly grocery bags and packaging. Six months into their two-year project, the research team has managed to …

The company behind Snapchat is trading sharply higher in its Wall Street debut.   Snap Inc. jumped $7, or 41 percent, to $24 a share.   It had priced its initial public offering of 200 million non-voting shares at $17 each on Wednesday. That’s above the expected range of $14 …

A Californian musician and a Russian music fan decided to become business partners. They founded a company to manufacture high-end microphones from old machinery that once produced Kalashnikov rifles. VOA’s Faiza Elmasry has more. Faith Lapidus narrates. …

Yahoo will not pay CEO Marissa Mayer her scheduled 2016 bonus, worth as much as $2 million, because of the massive breach her company suffered in 2014. And Yahoo’s general counsel, Ronald Bell, resigned without severance pay for his department’s lackadaisical response to the security lapses. Although Yahoo’s security team …

The strengthening of cyber capabilities is an important part of China’s military modernization, the government said on Wednesday, warning that the internet should not become “a new battlefield.” China, home to the largest number of internet users, has long called for greater cooperation among nations in developing and governing the …

Snap – owner of popular messaging app Snapchat – is going public on Thursday. And it expects anyone buying up to a quarter of its shares to agree not to sell them for a year. Applying lock-ups helps companies moderate stock volatility. A year-long lock-up period is atypically long, potentially …