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468 storiesWHO says risk low as US presses Russia for transparency on plague lab death
The U.S. State Department is monitoring reports of a fatal case of suspected pneumonic plague in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has publicly called on Moscow to be more transparent about the death of a 28-year-ol…
Russian anti-plague lab researcher dies; US and EU say they are monitoring
A 28-year-old female researcher at the Irkutsk anti-plague research institute in Shelekhov, Russia, died after being diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown cause, the state agency Rospotrebnadzor said. About 200 people who may have had contact…
Abu Dhabi's AI Everything opens with 400 exhibitors alongside Global Food Week
AI Everything 2026 opened on 6 October at the ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi and runs to 7 October, with WAM reporting 400 exhibitors and 180 speakers, and Economy Middle East reporting more than 400 companies, 200-plus investors managing about $10…
Russia quarantines hospital as lab worker’s death puts nearly 200 under observation
A female employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East died last week of pneumonia of unknown cause, Russian authorities said, and a hospital in the town of Shelekhov was placed under quarantine. Officia…
Apple and LG co-develop smart home devices including doorbell, lock and thermostat
Bloomberg reports that Apple and LG have co-developed a line of smart home devices, including a video doorbell, thermostat, smart deadbolt lock, indoor and outdoor security cameras and a floodlight camera. The products are expected to carry…
Nvidia-backed Reflection AI unveils Beam, open-weight model to rival Chinese models
Reflection AI unveiled Beam, a 501-billion-parameter open-weight AI model that the New York-based startup says matches leading Chinese open models like Z.ai’s GLM-5.2 at lower compute cost. The Nvidia-backed company says Beam is in final sa…
Abu Dhabi launches AiNative programme to train 20,000 government employees in AI
Abu Dhabi's Department of Government Enablement launched AiNative, an AI training programme, at the Ai Everything conference in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. The programme aims to train 20,000 government employees by the end of 2026 and is part o…
WHO says Russia reported no plague case in Irkutsk as US tracks lab worker's death
The World Health Organization said Russian authorities reported no plague case had been recorded in the Irkutsk region, while the cause of a 28-year-old anti-plague laboratory worker's death remained unconfirmed. The US State Department sai…
Supreme Court hears Boulder climate suit as justices question both sides
The Supreme Court heard nearly two hours of arguments Monday on whether the city and county of Boulder, Colorado, can sue Exxon Mobil and Suncor Energy in state court to recover costs tied to climate change. Conservative justices questioned…
WHO and Russia say no further plague infections after Siberian lab worker's death
A female worker at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East died last week from pneumonia of undetermined origin, according to Russian authorities and the WHO. Russia's Rospotrebnadzor said 60% of the identified contact…
MFDS approves Hanmi's EPPE, Korea's first homegrown GLP-1 obesity drug
Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved Hanmi Pharmaceutical's EPPE auto-injector (efpeglenatide) on Oct 7, the first domestically developed GLP-1 obesity drug and the country's 45th homegrown new drug. The injectable is indicated…
UAE ranks first globally in citizen satisfaction with government digital services
The UAE ranked first globally in citizen satisfaction with government digital services, with 89% of respondents rating them highly, according to Boston Consulting Group’s 2026 Digital Government Citizen Survey Report. The survey, covering 4…
KCTU to vote Oct 7 on return to social dialogue; council ready to talk
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (민주노총) will hold its 85th temporary delegate conference at 1 p.m. on Oct 7 at KINTEX in Goyang to vote on joining the Economic, Social and Labor Council (경사노위), which would end a 27-year absence from…
Busan shark Bukkangi crosses net, returns to waterway; rescue paused
The shark nicknamed Bukkangi, believed to be a dusky shark about 3 m long, crossed a large net and returned to the artificial waterway at Busan's Bukhang Chinsu Park around noon on Oct 3, a day after a second attempt to guide it to open sea…
AMD's Lisa Su visits Korea, agrees AI chip cooperation with local firms
AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su visited Korea on Oct. 7, about seven months after her March trip, meeting Second Vice Minister Ryu Je-myeong of the Science and ICT Ministry and a roundtable of Korean AI semiconductor and infrastructure companies.…
South Korea forecasts a cold, windy Oct. 6 with a 15C day-night temperature gap
South Korea's weather agency forecast a chilly, clear Oct. 6 with morning lows of about 3-14°C and a day-night temperature gap of roughly 15°C in most regions. Gangwon's inland and mountain areas were expected near or below 5°C, with winds …
South Korea re-designates 92 population decline regions, adds Busan Geumjeong, Dongducheon and Tongyeong
South Korea's Ministry of the Interior and Safety re-designated 92 cities, counties and districts as population decline regions on Oct. 7, up from 89 in the first designation five years earlier. Busan's Geumjeong-gu, Gyeonggi's Dongducheon …
Trump announces “Super Intelligence Force” AI task force led by Jay Clayton
President Donald Trump announced Sunday the creation of a “Super Intelligence Force,” a federal task force he said will coordinate government efforts to keep the United States leading in artificial intelligence, which he has directed the fe…
OpenAI publishes 722 AI-generated math manuscripts, sparking ethics debate
OpenAI has published 722 mathematics manuscripts, grouped into 372 result groups, produced by an unreleased internal frontier model, saying they solve or make substantive progress on hundreds of long-open problems. The release on GitHub inc…
Reflection AI unveils Beam, a 501B open-weight model for coding and agents
US startup Reflection AI announced Beam, an open-weight Mixture-of-Experts model with 501 billion total parameters and 23 billion active parameters, built for coding, reasoning and agent workloads. The model is still in final red-teaming an…