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South Korea launched its homegrown Nuri rocket on Thursday, officials said, a day after it was forced to postpone due to a technical glitch just hours before lift-off. It marks the third launch of the Nuri, which successfully put test satellites into orbit last year after a failed 2021 attempt saw the rocket's third-stage engine burn out too early. Wednesday's launch was called off over a computer communication error which was resolved by Thursday, allowing the launch -- a key step forward for the country's burgeoning space programme -- to go ahead. The three-stage rocket, more than 47 metres (155 feet) long and weighing 200 tonnes, soared into the sky from the Naro Space Center in South Korea's southern coastal region, leaving a huge trail of white smoke. "Flight normal," said a female announcer on the official government livestream of the launch, as Nuri soared into the sky. In previous tests, the rocket carried payloads mainly designed for verifying th...

Russia moved ahead on Thursday with a plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, whose leader said the warheads were already on the move, in the Kremlin's first deployment of such bombs outside Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union. President Vladimir Putin says the United States and its allies are fighting an escalating proxy war against Russia after the Kremlin chief sent troops into Ukraine in February last year. The plan for the nuclear deployment was announced by Vladimir Putin in an interview with state television on March 25. "The collective West is essentially waging an undeclared war against our countries," President Putin's defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said at a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart in Minsk, according to Russia's defence ministry. The West, Mr Shoigu said, was doing all it could "to prolong and escalate the armed conflict in Ukraine." Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said that tactical nuclea...

Russia moved ahead on Thursday with a plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, whose leader said the warheads were already on the move, in the Kremlin's first deployment of such bombs outside Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union. President Vladimir Putin says the United States and its allies are fighting an escalating proxy war against Russia after the Kremlin chief sent troops into Ukraine in February last year. The plan for the nuclear deployment was announced by Vladimir Putin in an interview with state television on March 25. "The collective West is essentially waging an undeclared war against our countries," President Putin's defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said at a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart in Minsk, according to Russia's defence ministry. The West, Mr Shoigu said, was doing all it could "to prolong and escalate the armed conflict in Ukraine." Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said that tactical nuclea...

Having led the world's first cloning of camels in 2009, Nisar Wani is now replicating a few dozen a year at a Dubai lab - a big business in the Gulf region where camels are cherished and can earn huge sums in beauty and racing contests. "We collect these eggs from the ovaries of slaughtered animals. We have to mature them in the lab for 24 hours before they reach the stage where we can use them for the cloning process," Mr Wani said. Reproductive cloning of animals uses a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer. DNA is removed from a camel egg cell and replaced with DNA from a frozen body cell of a camel prized for some quality such as speed or beauty. The egg then develops into an embryo with no sperm needed. Animal cloning is, however, time-consuming with low success rates. "From a hundred embryos that we transfer, we can have five to ten pregnancies, and sometimes maybe three to six babies born," said Wani, originally a veterinarian who has a PhD in ...

Having led the world's first cloning of camels in 2009, Nisar Wani is now replicating a few dozen a year at a Dubai lab - a big business in the Gulf region where camels are cherished and can earn huge sums in beauty and racing contests. "We collect these eggs from the ovaries of slaughtered animals. We have to mature them in the lab for 24 hours before they reach the stage where we can use them for the cloning process," Mr Wani said. Reproductive cloning of animals uses a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer. DNA is removed from a camel egg cell and replaced with DNA from a frozen body cell of a camel prized for some quality such as speed or beauty. The egg then develops into an embryo with no sperm needed. Animal cloning is, however, time-consuming with low success rates. "From a hundred embryos that we transfer, we can have five to ten pregnancies, and sometimes maybe three to six babies born," said Wani, originally a veterinarian who has a PhD in ...

Meta Platforms Inc started carrying out the last batch of a three-part round of layoffs on Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the matter, as part of a plan announced in March to eliminate 10,000 roles. Meta in March became the first Big Tech company to announce a second round of mass layoffs, after showing more than 11,000 employees the door in the fall. The cuts brought the company's headcount down to where it stood as of about mid-2021, following a hiring spree that doubled its workforce since 2020. Some employees took to platforms such as LinkedIn on Wednesday to announce that they were laid off in a round that was expected to cut deeply into the ad sales, marketing and partnerships teams. Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg in March said that the bulk of the layoffs in the company's second round would take place in three "moments" over several months, largely finishing in May. Some smaller rounds could continue after that, he said. Overall the cut...

Meta Platforms Inc started carrying out the last batch of a three-part round of layoffs on Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the matter, as part of a plan announced in March to eliminate 10,000 roles. Meta in March became the first Big Tech company to announce a second round of mass layoffs, after showing more than 11,000 employees the door in the fall. The cuts brought the company's headcount down to where it stood as of about mid-2021, following a hiring spree that doubled its workforce since 2020. Some employees took to platforms such as LinkedIn on Wednesday to announce that they were laid off in a round that was expected to cut deeply into the ad sales, marketing and partnerships teams. Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg in March said that the bulk of the layoffs in the company's second round would take place in three "moments" over several months, largely finishing in May. Some smaller rounds could continue after that, he said. Overall the cut...