Guatemalan boy dies after being detained by US border agents AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 25, 2018, 11:00 pm)

The death of the eight-year-old boy is the second instance this month of a migrant child dying under US detention.
Nigerian army says 14 personnel killed in Boko Haram ambush AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 25, 2018, 11:00 pm)

Security forces were on escort duty when they were attacked in Yobe state in the north of the country, army says.
Syrian air defences intercept 'hostile targets' near Damascus AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 25, 2018, 11:00 pm)

Loud explosions heard in the Syrian capital as state TV says the military intercepted a number of 'hostile targets'.
Indonesia tsunami: Rescuers use drones as dozens still missing AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 25, 2018, 10:00 pm)

Authorities said rescuers were working around the clock to reach six villages, currently inaccessible by road.
Fortnite Was 2018's Most Important Social Network Slashdotby msmash on social at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at December 25, 2018, 9:35 pm)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Epic Games managed to produce a hit, sure, but the genius of it is how it's rewritten the idea of what hanging out online can be. Fortnite is a game, but it's also a global living room for millions of people, and a kind of codex for where culture has gone this year -- it's a cultural omnibus that's absorbed everything from Blocboy JB's shoot dance to John Wick. It got Ted Danson to learn how to floss. This thing is here to stay, as a new kind of social network. Fortnite has achieved such a massive scale partially because of those network effects -- if all of your friends are hanging out there, you will be too. The game is both free to play and available on every device -- consoles, computers, even phones. That's created a kind of lingua franca, a base level of understanding among a large group of people about the experience of playing the game. And even though it's hugely popular, the experience of playing is extremely specific -- not so many people outside your peer group are going to know what you mean if you reference a "chug jug" in casual conversation. There's an in group thing going on here.

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Oakland fights to keep NFL team the Raiders AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 25, 2018, 9:00 pm)

California city's leaders are suing the team and NFL for leaving their longtime home, which has a strong fanbase.
Mohammed al-Houthi: We want a united and democratic Yemen AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 25, 2018, 9:00 pm)

A high ranking member of the rebel movement speaks to Al Jazeera about the Houthis' endgame in Yemen.
Why would Saudi Arabia rebuild Syria? AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 25, 2018, 9:00 pm)

US President Donald Trump says Saudi Arabia is ready to pay for the reconstruction of war-ravaged Syria.
Hot Tub Hack Reveals Washed-up Security Protection Slashdotby msmash on security at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at December 25, 2018, 8:35 pm)

Thousands of hot tubs can be hacked and controlled remotely because of a hole in their online security, BBC Click has revealed. From a report: Researchers showed the TV programme how an attacker could make the tubs hotter or colder, or control the pumps and lights via a laptop or smartphone. Vulnerable tubs are designed to let their owners control them with an app. But third-party wi-fi databases mean hackers can home in on specific tubs by using their GPS location data. Balboa Water Group (BWG), which runs the affected system, has now pledged to introduce a more robust security system for owners and said the problem would be fixed by the end of February. Pen Test Partners -- the UK security company that carried out the research -- warned that hot tubs were not the only household items at risk. Founder Ken Munro said that many Christmas gifts people would receive this year would connect to the internet and offer remote control through apps. "Manufacturers still are not taking security seriously enough, and until they do consumers have to be very vigilant," he said. "We recommend users reset any default passwords the device has immediately with a unique one of their own."

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ISIL claims deadly car bomb attack in Iraq's Tal Afar AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 25, 2018, 8:00 pm)

Military says the attack that took place in the former ISIL stronghold in northern Iraq killed two people.
Two court cases the UAE and Bahrain are hoping the West forgets AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 25, 2018, 8:00 pm)

The court appeals of activists Ahmed Mansoor and Nabeel Rajab are conveniently scheduled during the holiday season.
A Christmas Menu Dreamed Up by a Robot Slashdotby msmash on ai at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at December 25, 2018, 7:35 pm)

For most of us, using up the Christmas leftovers means endless rounds of turkey sandwiches and lashings of Brussel sprout curry in the days leading up to New Year. So, to help inject some creativity into this year's leftover eat-up, BBC turned to artificial intelligence for some culinary assistance. From a report: A number of research teams around the world have been developing AI systems that are capable of learning from existing recipes and then coming up with some of their own. We asked researchers behind two innovative algorithms to see what their AI's take would be on Christmas food. One, developed by computer scientists at Stanford University, can turn whatever food is left in your fridge into a unique recipe based on those ingredients. The other, created by AI researchers at the University of Illinois, puts a cultural twist on a meal by creating dishes from one country in the style of another cuisine. The first algorithm, called Forage, uses a type of AI known as deep neural networks, which attempts to replicate the way the human brain works. Networks like these are able to handle problems involving complex data and are increasingly being used to tackle tasks as diverse as controlling self-driving cars and recognising the early signs of cancer in health scans. [...] The second algorithm we used was developed by Lav Varshney and his team at the University of Illinois. It was trained on nearly 40,000 recipes from 20 different countries using a system that can apply semantic reasoning to replace certain ingredients with those it considers to be equivalent from a different cuisine.

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Syrian government forces 'enter' Kurdish-controlled Manbij region AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 25, 2018, 7:00 pm)

Trucks carrying regime forces and equipment, and armoured vehicles have arrived in the region, sources say.
iPhone Owners Irate After iOS Update Bricks Cellular Data Slashdotby msmash on iphone at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at December 25, 2018, 6:35 pm)

According to several reports, iPhone users around the world who have upgraded to the latest version of iOS are finding that it cuts off mobile data services. From a report: One Twitter user @kevbruh says that "Apple update 12.1.1, I had no cellular data. I tried inserting my SIM card again, hard resetting my device, and tried resetting the network settings. Nothing happened and the problem persists." In addition to North America, similar issues are being reported in South America, Europe and Asia. Other iPhone owners are reporting that they can't make or receive calls and others are saying that they can't text or receive texts. [...] Many more iPhone users have come forward on Twitter claiming that they are having connectivity issues related to iOS 12.1.2. Apple is advising some to try to update their carrier settings using this guide.

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India's longest road-rail bridge opened near China border AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 25, 2018, 6:30 pm)

The project that took two decades and $800m to complete will enable a speedy dispatch of forces to Arunachal Pradesh.