IN BRIEF (Page 12)

2016: The beginning of the end of a rock era

The year began with David Bowie releasing one of the most acclaimed albums of his vast career, a sign of new creative energy from the rock legend. Two days later, he was dead after a battle with cancer.

Job ad may give emoji experts reason to employ the happy face

A London translation agency said on Tuesday that it is advertising for its first "emoji translator" to help meet the "challenges posed by the world's fastest-growing language".

Da Vinci drawing discovered among doctor's papers

A lost drawing by the Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci has been discovered in the papers of a French provincial doctor, a Paris auction house said on Tuesday.

Crowdfunded train service takes on giant of the railway

With a single 1970s train in orange livery and a little crowdfunding help, a plucky Berlin startup is challenging the might of Germany's state rail operator, Deutsche Bahn.

Mixed results in game craze study

It has been hailed as a revolutionary way to get people moving, using smartphones to pursue cartoon creatures through city parks and streets on foot, instead of taking the car or metro.

Evacuation deal on hold amid clashes

Clashes erupted in Syria's Aleppo on Wednesday and a deal for the evacuation of rebel areas was on hold, leaving thousands of cold and hungry civilians uncertain of their future.

Lawmakers quiz doctors about Park's 'missing' 7 hours

Seven hours may have sealed the fate of South Korea's beleaguered President Park Geun-hye. That was the time between the first news reports that the Sewol ferry carrying hundreds of children was sinking off the nation's southern coast on April 16, 2014, and her first TV appearance that day.

All Osprey aircraft grounded after crash

The United States military on Wednesday grounded its tilt-rotor MV-22 Osprey aircraft in Japan after Tokyo called for a halt to flights following a crash southwest of Okinawa island, the first accident involving the aircraft in the Asian nation.

Europe's own satnav system, Galileo, set to go live

Seventeen years and more than $11 billion later, Europe's Galileo satnav system is set to go live on Thursday, promising to outperform US and Russian rivals while boosting regional self-reliance.

IN BRIEF (Page 11)

Whale of a time for marine tourists

Piercing the water's surface with its almond-shaped mouth, a giant Bryde's whale opens wide for one, two, three seconds, gulping in anchovies as a boatload of awed tourist look on in the Gulf of Thailand.