Gandhi-Zayed Digital Museum launched in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi: A digital interactive museum showcasing the life, works and philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi and the founder of modern UAE Shaikh Zayed was jointly inaugurated by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her counterpart Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The Gandhi-Zayed Digital Museum is part of the celebrations by the two nations to mark 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma and centenary celebrations of the birth of Shaikh Zayed. PTI

Four new gravitational waves detected

Washington: Scientists have made four new detections of gravitational waves-ripples in the fabric of space and time-emanating from separate black hole mergers. So far the US-based LIGO and Europe-based VIRGO gravitational-wave detectors have recorded gravitational waves from a total of 10 black hole mergers and one merger of neutron stars. The new events are known as GW170729, GW170809, GW170818, and GW170823, in reference to the dates they were detected. PTI  

Tumblr bans porn to clean up the blogging platform

San Francisco: Tumblr has said it is banning adult content from the Yahoo-owned blogging platform, which saw its app pulled from Apple’s App Store last month over child pornography. Tumblr will begin enforcing its new policy on December 17, giving users who host unwanted explicit content a chance to take their imagery elsewhere, according to chief executive Jeff. “There are no shortage of sites on the Internet that feature adult content,” he said. AFP  

Duterte jokes about smoking marijuana

Manila: Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, whose war on drugs has taken the lives of thousands in the country, caused outrage after he claimed he smoked marijuana to stay awake though he later claimed the comment was just a joke. Duterte described lengthy international meetings he had to attend as President as a “killing activity” and bemoaned that the reading and preparation often kept him up late into the night. “But at my age, I am not really bothered because I take marijuana to stay awake,” he said. Later,  he brushed aside allegations he had caused offence with his marijuana comment. IANS