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UAE Channels Oil Money into Alternative Energy

Rising from the desert outside Abu Dhabi, Masdar city is laying the groundwork for when the United Arab Emirates' oil wells run dry.

Driverless electric cars shuttle between energy-saving buildings topped with arrays of solar panels.

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Hackers May Hit Home for the Holidays

It could be a merry holiday season for hackers, with millions of new and potentially vulnerable Internet-connected gadgets hitting the market.

Security experts say the vulnerabilities of "Internet of Things" devices such as fitness bands, smartwatches, drones and connected appliances could be exploited as consumers adopt these products for the holiday season.

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Pressure for Yahoo Turnaround Puts Squeeze on Mayer

Lack of a long-awaited turnaround at Yahoo has put pressure on chief executive Marissa Mayer to prove she has what it takes to revive the faded Internet pioneer.

Investors, who were already disappointed by low momentum under Mayer, were given more to worry about this week.

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UK Communications Spooks Seek Hipster Cyber Skills

Britain's communications intelligence agency said on Thursday it had spray-painted job adverts on London streets popular with hipsters to woo more employees with cyber skills.

East London's gritty but funky Shoreditch area is more known for its bearded and tattooed denizens than the posh, well-dressed agents associated with British intelligence, but officials say they are trying to break the mold.

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Telegram Messenger App Blocks 78 IS-Linked Accounts

The instant messenger app Telegram, created by Russian Internet guru Pavel Durov, says it has blocked 78 accounts associated with the jihadist Islamic State group following the attacks in Paris.

"We were disturbed to learn that Telegram's public channels were being used by ISIS to spread their propaganda," the service said on its own account late Wednesday.

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Clothes Smarter than You are: Welcome to the Future

Wish there was a gadget able to transform your boring office uniform into a party outfit, or even a device that guides you straight to new friends?

Then call Marcelo Coelho.

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As Emerging Markets Grow, Android Extends Smartphone Lead

Android-powered smartphones extended their lead in the global marketplace in the third quarter, helped by growth in emerging markets, a survey showed Wednesday.

The Google-powered operating system was used in 84.7 percent of smartphones sold worldwide in the quarter, up from 83.3 percent a year earlier, the Gartner survey showed. 

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Facebook Activates Safety Feature after Nigeria Bombing

Facebook has activated its "Safety Check" feature for the first time in Nigeria, after a bombing likely carried out by Boko Haram killed more than 30 late on Tuesday.

"We've activated Safety Check again after the bombing in Nigeria this evening," co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a post on the site.

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In Kenya, a Digital Classroom in a Box

At the Lighthouse Grace Academy in Nairobi's downmarket Kwangware suburb, yellow school t-shirts carry the slogan 'To Fear God is Wisdom', but in their hands pupils clutch a more worldly path to knowledge: tablet computers.

The hand-sized tablets are part of the 'Kio Kit', a digital classroom in a suitcase designed by local technology company BRCK, which two years ago launched the hard-wearing, brick-sized modem that works as a wifi hotspot.

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Mobile Information Superhighway Super Expensive in U.S. Compared to Europe

Perhaps everything's bigger in America, as the old saw goes, but when it comes to mobile phone calls and data usage, U.S. consumers are certainly paying big, sometimes nearly as 20 times as much as Europeans.

If you live in France, you can pay as little as 20 euros ($21.50) per month for a monthly package featuring 50 gigabytes of data, unlimited domestic and international calls to over 100 countries and unlimited text messages.

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