Keppel Corp's net profit falls 22% on-year in Q4

SINGAPORE: Falling margins from building oil rigs has hit the bottomline of Keppel Corp. Net profit for the world's leading rig builder fell 22 per cent on-year to S$305 million in the fourth quarter last year.Still, full year profit for the conglomerate came in 15 per cent to S$2.24 billion.Despite lower net profit in the three months ended Dec 31, Keppel Corp still declared a final dividend...

Read More..

French court tells Twitter it must hand over names of racist tweeters

A French court ruled today that Twitter must turn over the identities users who post racist tweets.(Credit:Illustration by James Martin/CNET)Twitter must hand over the identities of users in France who post racist tweets, a French court ruled today.According to AFP, the court's ruling stemmed from a test case "that pitted the right to free speech against laws banning hate speech," and answered a petition...

Read More..

Deformed Dolphin Accepted Into New Family

In 2011, behavioral ecologists Alexander Wilson and Jens Krause of the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Germany were surprised to discover that a group of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus)—animals not usually known for forging bonds with other species—had taken in an adult bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). The researchers observed the group in...

Read More..

Exterminator Charged in Pa. Doctor's Murder

An exterminator named Joseph Smith was arrested and charged today in the strangling and burning death of Philadelphia pediatrician Melissa Ketunuti.Smith, 36, had been sent to Ketunuti's home on a service call where the two got into "some kind of argument" in Ketunuti's basement on Monday, Capt. James Clark of the Philadelphia police department said this morning."At her home...

Read More..

Snaps from space: Bleak landscapes become abstract art

18:27 23 January 2013Yesterday, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield dropped a puck from space for his favourite hockey team's opening game. In the meantime, he's been busy tweeting his latest photos of astounding landscapes from the International Space Station. Here are a few of our favourites. Sandrine Ceurstemont Image 1 of 6 The Australian outback looks like an abstract painting in this...

Read More..

Steady rise in government data requests: Google

SAN FRANCISCO: Google on Wednesday reported a "steady increase" in government requests to hand over data from Internet users in the second half of 2012.The Web giant's semi-annual "transparency report" showed the most requests came from the United States, with 8,438 requests for information about 14,868 users.India was second with 2,431 requests for data about 4,106 users, followed by...

Read More..

Tech talk 'more confusing than a foreign language'

The most confusing word in tech. Allegedly.(Credit:Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)You might be familiar with the term "megabyte."For some, though, it represents an emotional megadeath.You might know what an ISP is, but some need ESP in order to explain to themselves what this actually means.This, at least, is the conclusion of a deeply disturbing piece of research, performed in the U.K. on behalf...

Read More..

Pictures: Trout vs. Trout in Yellowstone Lake

Photograph by Jay FlemingWithout aggressive management, the population of Yellowstone cutthroats could be decimated. To suppress the population of lake trout, the National Park Service engaged a contract fishing company to net them. Cutthroats are removed carefully from the traps and thrown back. Lake trout are removed and killed. Last year about 300,000 of the non-native intruders were taken...

Read More..

Clinton Says Budget Cuts Undermine Security

An energized Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stood her ground today, telling the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that she has overseen plans to secure diplomatic outposts around the world while cuts in State Department funding undermine those efforts.Citing a report by the department's Accountability Review Board on the security failures that led to the deaths of four...

Read More..

Today on New Scientist: 22 January 2013

Did Mars hide life in its watery pockets? Clays and carbonates found in a Martian crater might be deposits from groundwater that could have nourished life long after the planet's surface dried up8th-century tree rings hint at close-range space blast High levels of carbon-14 in two Japanese cedars may be one of the first signs of a nearby gamma-ray burst3D sonar uncovers skeleton of Civil War...

Read More..