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AI helps solve businessman Aamir Awan murder and arrest suspects within 24 hours, Islamabad police chief says Islamabad police chief Syed Nasir Rizvi said on Tuesday that AI technology was used to crack the murder case of businessman Aamir Awan within 24 hours. Last night, Awan, the owner of a private motor company's showroom, was shot dead within the limits of Shahzad Town police station. He tried to resist the assailants when they opened fire. Awan was immediately taken to Shifa International Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.  Earlier in the morning, Islamabad Police took five suspects into custody for investigation in connection with the murder. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad today, along with State Minister for Interior Talal Chaudhry, the inspector general of police said that 17 teams were formed, six locations were geo-fenced and 137 call details were compared as part of the investigation. "The f...

Big Tech's $635b AI spending faces energy shock test, S&P Global says Massive investments in artificial intelligence that underpinned record runs in equities face a major hurdle as the Middle East ​crisis clouds prospects for growth and energy costs, said Melissa ‌Otto, head of research at S&P Global Visible Alpha. Before the Iran war broke out, tech giants Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta planned to spend about $635 billion on data ​centres, chips, and other AI infrastructure in 2026, S&P Global ​has said. Read: Underwater data centres, AI-produced toxic proteins and the looming computer memory disaster That figure was up from $383 billion the prior year ⁠and just $80 billion in 2019. Although tech companies have yet to signal ​cutbacks in those capital investments, persistently high oil prices could force spending ​revisions in the first and second quarters, bringing a "really meaningful correction in all equity markets," Otto said. "I think if th...

Australia readies social media court action citing teen ban breaches Australia threatened on Tuesday to sue social media giants for allegedly flouting a ban on under-16s, as its internet regulator disclosed it is investigating some of the biggest platforms for suspected non-compliance with the world-first measure. Three months after the ban came into effect, the eSafety Commissioner said it was probing Meta's Instagram and Facebook, Google's YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok for possible breaches of the law. Communications Minister Anika Wells said the government was gathering evidence "so that the eSafety Commissioner can go to the Federal Court and win". "We have spent the summer building that evidence base of all the stories that no doubt you have all heard ... about how kids are getting around that," Wells told reporters in Canberra. Governments around the world are watching Australia's moves to rein in the tech giants, with many considering similar reg...

NASA set for first crewed moon return in over half a century The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is preparing to launch the first crew of astronauts toward the moon in over 53 years with its second ​Artemis mission, a critical test flight in humanity's broader lunar goals as the United States races to reassert leadership in space, faced with growing competition from China. Three US and one Canadian astronaut ‌are due for liftoff aboard NASA's Orion capsule and Space Launch System rocket on Wednesday for a 10-day test mission swinging around the moon and back, a winding journey taking them deeper into space than humans have ever gone before. The mission is the first crewed test flight in NASA's Artemis programme, the flagship US effort to begin regular flights to the moon, at an estimated cost of at least $93 billion since 2012. Not since Apollo 17 in 1972 have humans touched down on the moon's surface, a tricky ​feat NASA aims to repeat in 2028 at...

China's DeepSeek AI chatbot suffers longest outage since viral rise in early 2025 China's popular DeepSeek artificial intelligence chatbot suffered its longest outage on Monday since the rise of its flagship R1 and V3 models early last year. DeepSeek's status website showed that the chatbot suffered a "major outage" lasting 7 hours and 13 minutes, from the early hours of Monday morning until 10:33am local time (7:33am PKT), when the incident was marked as resolved. As per company protocol, no reason was given for the outage. Such incidents can be caused by a wide range of issues, from malfunctioning servers to bugs stemming from an update to the AI chatbot. Read: China blasts ‘false’ news after report says chipmaker supplying Iran DeepSeek data shows that its API service, a function mostly used by developers to integrate the chatbot into custom applications, saw consecutive day-long outages in late January 2025, at the height of its viral moment. But its webpage...

Sony to hike PlayStation 5 prices again as memory chip costs surge Sony Group is raising global prices of its PlayStation 5 consoles, including a $100 increase in the United States, marking its second hike in less than a year as the Japanese firm grapples with rising costs of key components such as memory chips. The tech industry’s race to build out artificial intelligence infrastructure has pushed memory makers to favour higher-margin data-centre chips, tightening supply for consumer devices. The updated US prices, effective April 2, will put the standard PS5 at $649.99, up from $549.99. The digital edition will now cost $599.99 while the high-end PS5 Pro will cost $899.99. Read More: Microsoft to release Starfield on PlayStation 5 in shift away from Xbox exclusives Prices of the PlayStation Portal remote player will also climb to $249.99 from $199.99. Similar increases will take effect across Europe and Japan, following what the company described as a "careful evaluation"...

China blasts ‘false’ news after report says chipmaker supplying Iran China’s foreign ministry accused the media of publishing “false information” on Friday following a report that said the country’s top semiconductor firm has sent chipmaking tools to Iran. The report, which cited information from two unidentified senior officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, said contract chipmaker SMIC “began sending the tools to Iran roughly a year ago”. A US official was quoted in the report as saying they had “no reason to believe that any of this has stopped”. China is a key partner of Iran but has not announced military assistance to Tehran in the war triggered by US-Israeli strikes on February 28, repeatedly calling for a ceasefire. Read: Trump names Nvidia, Meta CEOs to science and tech council The chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), did not respond to an AFP request for comment on Friday. Asked about the report at a regular news conferen...

NASA rover detects some of the oldest evidence of water flowing on Mars Using ground-penetrating radar, NASA's Perseverance rover has detected underground remains of an ancient river delta on Mars in some of the oldest evidence yet obtained showing how water once flowed on the surface of Earth's planetary neighbor. Researchers said the six-wheeled rover revealed geological features up to 115 feet (35 metres) underground while traversing 3.8 miles (6.1 km) of terrain inside Jezero Crater, an area in the Martian northern hemisphere believed to have been flooded with water and home to an ancient lake basin long ago. Perseverance identified layered sediments and eroded surfaces indicative of a delta environment, a large-scale fan-shaped deposit of sediment formed at the location where a river enters a larger body of water like a lake. They estimated that the now-buried delta dates to about 3.7 to 4.2 billion years ago. Mars, like Earth, formed roughly 4.5 billion years ago, meani...

Meta laying off hundreds of employees, source says Meta Platforms is laying off a few hundred people across multiple teams on Wednesday, ​a source familiar with the matter told ‌Reuters. Reuters reported earlier this month that Meta was planning sweeping layoffs that could affect 20% or more of the ​company's workforce and that top executives had signalled ​the plans to other senior leaders and ⁠told them to begin planning how to pare ​back. Wednesday's layoffs were on a smaller scale. According ​to an earlier report in The Information, the cuts would affect Meta's Reality Labs division, social media teams and recruiting ​operations. Read: Trump names Nvidia, Meta CEOs to science and tech council "Teams across Meta regularly restructure or implement ​changes to ensure they’re in the best position to achieve ‌their ⁠goals. Where possible, we are finding other opportunities for employees whose positions may be impacted,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. The Fac...

Google to label verified investment apps in India amid scam crackdown Alphabet's Google will label verified investment apps on its app ​store in ​India, a move aimed at ⁠helping users spot ​legitimate trading platforms ​and avoid scams, a senior official at the country's ​markets regulator, Securities ​and Exchange Board of India, ‌said ⁠on Wednesday. The move will allow only brokers and intermediaries registered ​with ​SEBI ⁠to carry a verified badge, ​helping users identify ​legitimate ⁠platforms and distinguish them from fraudulent apps ⁠posing ​as them. India has seen a rise in fake trading apps mimicking well-known brokers, promising quick returns while siphoning off user funds. Regulators say these scams often exploit first-time investors who rely heavily on app store listings to judge credibility. Read: OpenAI drops AI video tool Sora, startling Disney, sources say To earn Google’s new verification badge in India, investment apps must be officially registered with SEBI...

Ex-Google executive Brittin named new BBC boss, to steer reform The BBC named former Google executive Matt Brittin as its ‌new director general on Wednesday, replacing Tim Davie who quit last year after a misleading edit of a speech by US President Donald Trump. BBC Chair Samir Shah said it was "clear there is need for radical reform" at the publicly funded broadcaster, and he and the board ​believed Brittin to be the right person to steer the change. "The stakes for the BBC, and the future ​of public service broadcasting, have never been higher," he added. Also Read: OpenAI drops AI video tool Sora, startling Disney, sources say Aside from a $10 billion lawsuit from ⁠Trump, the BBC is facing a battle to stay relevant as viewers, particularly younger audiences, shift to streamers and ​other digital platforms. Trump accuses it of defamation over how the BBC spliced together footage of parts of a speech he ​gave on January 6, 2021, before his supporters stormed the ...

OpenAI drops AI video tool Sora, startling Disney, sources say OpenAI has scrapped its AI video tool Sora, abruptly ending a planned $1 billion deal with Walt Disney Co, in a move that highlights the company’s shift toward more lucrative business areas. On Monday evening, teams from Walt Disney Co and OpenAI were working together on a project linked to Sora. Just 30 minutes after that meeting, the Disney team was blindsided by news that OpenAI was dropping the tool altogether, a person familiar with the matter said. OpenAI announced the move publicly on Tuesday. “It was a big rug-pull,” said the person, who requested anonymity to discuss the matter. The decision marks a significant step by the ChatGPT maker to refocus its business on areas such as coding tools and corporate customers. Read: Disney’s $1B OpenAI deal collapses as Sora shutdown halts partnership However, the abrupt cancellation of Sora also illustrates the challenges in streamlining operations as OpenAI prepares for a p...

NASA to spend $20 billion on moon base, cancel orbiting lunar station NASA is cancelling plans to deploy a space station in lunar orbit and ​will instead use its components to construct a $20 billion ‌base on the moon's surface over the next seven years, its new chief, Jared Isaacman, said on Tuesday. Isaacman, who was sworn in at the agency ​in December, made the announcement at the opening of a ​day-long event at NASA's Washington headquarters, at which he ⁠outlined a raft of changes he is making to the agency's ​flagship moon program Artemis. To build a sustained human presence on the Moon, we are building @NASAMoonBase, prioritizing surface operations and scalable infrastructure. - Frequent robotic landings and mobility testing including MoonFall drones - Starting in 2027 nearly monthly cadence of equipment and… pic.twitter.com/3T00Y450kO — NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (@NASAAdmin) March 24, 2026 "It should not really surprise anyone that we ​are pausing Gat...

CERT warns supply chain vulnerabilities could expose national critical infrastructure The National Cyber Emergency Response Team has issued a high urgency advisory warning that hostile actors may exploit hardware and software supply chains to infiltrate and disrupt national critical infrastructure. The advisory states that global supply chains have shifted from being a logistical concern to becoming a primary battleground for "state-sponsored sabotage and espionage". According to the document titled Securing National Critical Infrastructure Against Supply Chain Exploitation, attackers no longer rely solely on breaching network perimeters. Instead, they targeted the manufacturing, assembly and delivery stages of hardware and software used in sensitive installations to "compromise targets at scale". The advisory noted that failure to secure the final delivery stage of hardware or to validate the build environment of software updates could expose entire sectors t...

OnlyFans owner Leonid Radvinsky dies at 43 after cancer battle Leonid Radvinsky, the billionaire owner of OnlyFans, has died at the age of 43 following a battle with cancer, the company confirmed. In a statement, a spokesperson said, “We are deeply saddened to announce the death of Leo Radvinsky,” adding that he “passed away peacefully after a long battle with cancer.” The statement also noted that “his family have requested privacy at this difficult time,” as tributes begin to emerge for the tech entrepreneur who helped transform OnlyFans into a global platform. Born in Odesa, Ukraine, and raised in Chicago, Radvinsky built his career in tech before entering the adult content industry. He founded the webcam platform MyFreeCams in 2004 before acquiring OnlyFans’ parent company in 2018, becoming its majority owner and director. Under his leadership, OnlyFans grew into one of the most profitable subscription platforms in the world, allowing creators to monetise content directly from fa...

SUPARCO kicks off 'Space4Climate Initiative' to boost climate resilience The Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) on Sunday launched the Space4Climate Initiative to strengthen climate resilience and action through space-based technologies, according to a statement issued by the military’s media wing. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that the initiative was centered on a GeoAI-enabled Climate Observatory — an integrated digital platform that consolidates satellite data, geospatial analytics, and modeling into actionable insights for policymakers, researchers, and communities. The Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) has launched the Space4Climate Initiative, featuring a GeoAI-enabled Climate Observatory. By integrating satellite and ground data, it monitors pollutants, greenhouse gases, forests, glaciers, rivers, land use,… pic.twitter.com/Vr7EePxCho — Pakistan TV (@PakTVGlobal) March 22, 2026 “The platfo...

Musk found liable to Twitter shareholders in fraud lawsuit over $44b takeover A United States federal jury found Elon Musk liable on Friday for claims he defrauded Twitter shareholders by trying to drive down the social media company’s stock price so he could renegotiate or back out of a $44 billion takeover in 2022. The verdict, delivered in a San Francisco federal court, came in a closely watched civil trial where Musk, the world’s richest person, was accused of falsely claiming on social media that Twitter underreported the number of fake and spam accounts, known as bots, on its platform. Damages have yet to be calculated, but Francis Bottini, a lawyer for the shareholders, estimated they could total about $2.5b. “Musk’s status as the world’s richest man is not a free pass,” Bottini said. “If you’re able to move markets with your tweets, you’re responsible for the harm you cause to investors.” Read: Musk first person worth $700b In a joint statement, Musk’s lawyers at Quinn Emanue...

5G rollout to boost youth empowerment, innovation: PM Shehbaz Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday said that the launch of 5G spectrum marked a major milestone for Pakistan, benefitting various sectors from agriculture and technology to industry. Pakistan recently sold 5G spectrum worth $507 million in an auction aimed at boosting internet speeds. Telecom operators will launch 5G services initially in Islamabad and the provincial capitals, which will later be extended to other areas of the country. In total, the government sold 480 MHz of spectrum, although it had originally targeted 597 MHz. Three telecom operators — Jazz, Zong and Ufone — secured frequencies to roll out next-generation mobile services. Addressing the signing ceremony of licence agreements for the 5G spectrum, the prime minister said the auction process was conducted in a transparent manner despite legal challenges. He appreciated the efforts of Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar who fully cooperated ...

Researchers uncover iPhone spyware capable of penetrating millions of devices A powerful software exploit capable of penetrating and stealing information from potentially hundreds of millions of Apple iPhones ‌was planted on dozens of websites in Ukraine in recent weeks, researchers said on Wednesday. The discovery marks the second time this month that researchers have found spyware targeting iPhones and other Apple devices. Together, the two hacking tools show that the market for sophisticated malware capable of stealing data and cryptocurrency wallet information ​is flourishing, researchers said. Researchers with cyber firm Lookout, mobile security firm iVerify, and Alphabet's Google, published coordinated analyses of the malware they dubbed “Darksword.” ​On March 3, Google and iVerify revealed a separate powerful iPhone spyware called "Coruna." Researchers found Darksword hosted on ⁠the same servers. “There’s now a verified pipeline of recent exploits ... that have e...

LUMS secures Gates Foundation grant to launch Pakistan’s first National AI Hub Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) was awarded a major multi-year grant from the Gates Foundation on Wednesday to establish Pakistan’s first nationally coordinated Artificial Intelligence (AI) Hub. A press release issued today said the initiative would initially focus on maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH), one of the country’s most urgent public health priorities, while being designed as a long-term platform to address other critical development challenges The National AI Hub brings together LUMS and Aga Khan University (AKU) to address maternal, newborn, and child health challenges. The press release said LUMS would leverage its expertise in AI, language technologies, gender and technology research, and digital public health innovation while AKU would provide technical and clinical support, contribute to maternal health datasets, and assist with field ...

China tech giant Tencent logs 16% jump in annual net profit Chinese internet giant Tencent on Wednesday reported a 16 percent jump in full-year net profit, with gaming still its main business driver even as the company extends its AI push. Tencent, the world's largest video game publisher, is competing to offer artificial intelligence tools with its domestic tech rivals including Alibaba, Baidu and ByteDance. "We sustained healthy growth rates in 2025, as AI capabilities improved our ad targeting and supported more engagement with our games," CEO Ma Huateng said in a statement. "Our highly resilient and cash generative core businesses provide us with the resources to fund our increasing investments in AI." The Shenzhen-based company has recently branched out into the world of AI agents -- tools that execute real-life tasks such as sending emails or booking flights -- with its WorkBuddy app. The tool, released this month, is a foray into an area some see as the...

A mystery AI model has developers buzzing: Is this DeepSeek's latest blockbuster? A powerful artificial intelligence model that appeared anonymously on a developer platform last week has sparked speculation that Chinese startup DeepSeek may be quietly testing its next-generation system ahead of an official launch. The free model, called Hunter Alpha, surfaced on the AI gateway platform OpenRouter on ​March 11 without any developer attribution and was later described by the platform as a "stealth model." During tests conducted by Reuters, the ‌Hunter Alpha chatbot described itself as "a Chinese AI model primarily trained in Chinese" and said its training data extended to May 2025, the same knowledge cutoff point reported by DeepSeek's own chatbot. When asked about its creator, however, the system declined to identify its developer. "I only know my name, my parameter scale, and my context window length," the chatbot said. Neither DeepSeek ​nor Open...

FIFA, YouTube reach deal for World Cup live broadcasts FIFA announced an agreement Tuesday making YouTube a "preferred platform" for this summer's World Cup. The deal allows rights-holding broadcast partners ‌to stream the first 10 minutes of every match on their YouTube ‌channels. The objective is to ⁠create a sample of sorts, encouraging younger ‌fans using the site to then switch to traditional channels such as network television to follow the rest of ⁠the action. Broadcast partners will also be able to ‌stream a select number of full 90-minute matches on their YouTube channels. FIFA and @YouTube team up in game-changing FIFA World Cup 2026™ Preferred Platform agreement ⚽️ Innovative agreement provides official Media Partners more opportunities to expand coverage of the competition ⚽️ Multifaceted partnership to enhance promotion with premium content… pic.twitter.com/KUaj5y3IzA — FIFA Media (@fifamedia) March 17, 2026 The 48-team tournament takes place across ⁠the Un...

Google in talks with China's Envicool, others to buy data centre cooling systems, sources say Alphabet's Google is in talks with Envicool and other Chinese firms ​about buying liquid cooling equipment for data centres, according to people with knowledge of a visit to China ‌by one of the US firm's procurement teams. Liquid cooling systems - which circulate water or other liquid over or around equipment - have become critical in AI data centres as the high-density computing generates more heat than a traditional air cooling system can handle. The visit by the team from Google's Taiwan ​operations this month reflects the tight supply of parts for such systems, the sources said. During the visit, Google's team ​met with Envicool, said two of three sources, who were not authorised to speak to the media ⁠and declined to be identified. The team also plans to meet with at least one other company, according to a ​separate source. Neither Google nor Shenzhen-based Envicool...

Nvidia bets on AI inference as chip revenue opportunity hits $1 trillion Nvidia said the revenue opportunity for its artificial intelligence chips may reach at least $1 trillion through 2027, as the company outlined a strategy to compete more aggressively in the fast-growing market for running AI systems in real time. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang unveiled a new central processor and an AI system built on technology from Groq — a chip startup from which Nvidia licensed technology for $17 billion in December — at its annual GTC developer conference in San Jose. The moves are part of Huang’s bid to firm up the company’s position in so-called inference computing — the process of answering queries — where its graphics processors face greater competition from central processing units and custom processors built by the likes of Google. Nvidia chips have dominated the process of AI model training, which has been the focus of recent years. Read: China's DeepSeek trained AI model o...