IN BRIEF (Page 8)

Emjoi craze a smiley-faced success story

'World's fastest-growing language' meeting a need, according to creator

Reed ship bound for Down Under

Bolivian President Evo Morales on Thursday held an incense burner aloft, in an indigenous rite of cleansing and blessing, launching a ship built of cattail reeds, a common wetland plant.

New Year sex attacks still linger

It's been nearly a year since Cologne's now infamous New Year's Eve, when a wave of sexual assaults by migrant men horrified Germany.

Ancient human ancestor was taller than first thought, his footprints say

He stood a majestic 1.65 meters, weighed around 45 kilograms and maybe had a harem. That's what scientists figure from the footprints he left behind some 3.7 million year ago.

Casino gambling cleared at 'integrated resorts'

Japan's parliament on Thursday approved a law on "integrated resorts" that is the first major hurdle in allowing casinos to set up shop in the wealthy nation.

Shipwreck find could be the stuff of history

Treasure hunters have apparently found the 500-year-old remains of a naval expedition led by a colonizer who could have changed Florida's history, making it French-speaking at least for a while.

Display reveals spy gadgets

Lipstick pistols, poison pens, explosive rats - a new Paris exhibit reveals real-life spy gadgets and tells the story of how secret agents around the world were recruited, trained and equipped during clandestine missions from World War I to the end of the Cold War.

Abe, Putin discuss islands row

Being on a different wavelength with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may find it impossible to settle the territorial dispute between the two countries during Putin's visit that began at a hot springs resort in Abe's ancestral hometown of Nagato, Yamaguchi prefecture, on Thursday.

Evacuation convoy starts leaving Aleppo

Residents in eastern Aleppo started to board buses and ambulances as the long-awaited pullout from the last rebel enclave in the embattled Syrian city got underway on Thursday.

Yahoo suffers world's biggest hack

Yahoo has discovered a 3-year-old security breach that enabled a hacker to compromise more than 1 billion user accounts, breaking the company's own humiliating record for the biggest security breach in history.

Emperor Qianlong's dragon seal sells for $22m

An 18th-century Chinese imperial seal sold for a record $22 million in Paris on Wednesday - more than 20 times its estimate, the Drouot auction house said, a world record for this kind of bids.