Obama orders review of cyber attacks on 2016 election
US President Barack Obama has ordered intelligence agencies to review cyber attacks and foreign intervention into the 2016 election and deliver a report before he leaves office on Jan 20, the White House said.
In October, the US government formally accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against Democratic Party organisations ahead of the Nov 8 presidential election, and Obama has said he warned Russian President Vladimir Putin about consequences for the attacks.
The review and its timeline are a signal that Obama wants the issue addressed before he hands power to President-elect Donald Trump, who cast doubt on Russia's hacking role and praised Putin during the campaign.
Obama's homeland security adviser, Lisa Monaco, told reporters the report's results would be shared with lawmakers and others.
Russia faces calls for total ban over doping
The United States and Germany led calls for Russia to be exiled from international competition after the McLaren report said doping in sport in the country represented an "institutional conspiracy".
More than 1,000 athletes in the summer and winter Olympics and Paralympics "can be identified as being involved in or benefiting from manipulations to conceal positive testing", said Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren.
Drug test samples at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014 were even manipulated by the addition of salt and coffee, said the report prepared for the World Anti-Doping Agency
Samsung to disable Note 7 phones in the US via software update
Samsung Electronics said that a software update for Galaxy Note 7 smartphones will be released mid-December in the United States preventing them from charging and functioning as mobile phones, rendering them useless.
The smartphone maker said that more than 93 per cent of all recalled Galaxy Note 7 devices had been returned as a part of its exchange programme in the United States.
The US Transportation Department and other agencies in October ordered Galaxy Note 7 owners from carrying the devices or stowing them in checked baggage during flights following reports of fires in replacement Note 7 devices.
15,000 partygoers descend for Zoukout's first night
Zoukout, Asia's largest beach dance music festival, is back for another round of epic dusk-to-dawn revelry.
About 15,000 partygoers attended the first night at Sentosa's Siloso Beach on Friday, with 40,000 expected to attend altogether over both Friday and Saturday nights.
Revellers in slippers, singlets and shorts partied on the sand, with the more adventurous going bare-chested. Many donned flashing glasses, headbands, and glow-in-the-dark wristbands. The high point of the night came when Dutch DJ Hardwell, currently ranked #3 on DJ Mag Top 100, took to the stage at 2.30am on Saturday morning.
Mother of One Direction singer Louis Tomlinson dies from cancer
One Direction singer Louis Tomlinson's mother has died from an aggressive form of leukaemia, her family said on Friday.
Johannah Deakin, 43, who worked as a midwife and had seven children, died on Wednesday in hospital in Sheffield, where she had been since May after being diagnosed with the cancer.
Tomlinson, Deakin's oldest child, is scheduled to perform at the final of British television singing contest The X Factor at the weekend, British media reported.
