From ready-to-wear knits manufactured instantly to customized dresses produced on inkjet printers, Japan's apparel industry is turning to state-of-the-art technology in a bold bid to cut labor costs and secure its future.

At manufacturing giant Shima Seiki's factory in western Japan, garments materialize in minutes, thanks to digitally-programmed automated machines that can turn out a sample seam-free pullover in half an hour with a push of a button.

Pope Francis posted his first photo on Instagram on Saturday, a picture showing him kneeling down praying, on the third anniversary of his inauguration as Holy Father.

"I want to walk with you along the way of God's mercy and tenderness," he wrote on the photo-sharing platform, under the account name franciscus.

Google's parent company Alphabet is seeking to sell its Boston Dynamics subsidiary specialized in developing and manufacturing robots, the Financial Times reported Friday.

"The move is part of an effort to refocus robotics efforts under its Google X unit", the newspaper said quoting sources familiar with the plans.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took a mask-free jog through Beijing's Tiananmen Square on Friday, smiling through thick smog as he seeks greater access for his company to China, where its service is banned.

The social media executive was in the capital ahead of an economic forum that gives some of the world's top business and finance leaders the opportunity to hobnob with senior Chinese politicians.

Nintendo on Thursday rolled out its first smartphone game after years of refusing to stray from a consoles-only policy as it tries to better compete with rivals. 

The Japanese company has struggled as Sony and Microsoft outpaced it in console sales, while the three companies are also fighting off a trend toward cheap -- even free -- downloadable games for smartphones and other mobile devices.

Google's artificial intelligence (AI) program AlphaGo has been awarded the highest Go grandmaster rank, reserved for those whose ability at the ancient board game borders on "divinity", South Korea's Go Association said Tuesday.

The association announced the award before the final game of AlphaGo's five-match series with South Korean grandmaster Lee Se-Dol, with the computer currently holding an unassailable 3-1 advantage.

President Barack Obama made a pilgrimage Friday to SXSW -- the tech world's Davos and Woodstock rolled into one -- making a government recruitment pitch even as he fanned a row over encryption.

Obama traveled to Austin, Texas, ostensibly to open a "pipeline" of programmers, developers and other tech whiz kids to enter government service.

For 32-year-old banker Hani, it was always a nightmare riding in Cairo's battered taxis through traffic gridlock and thick exhaust fumes that sputter out of rickety vehicles.

But with the arrival of ride-hailing apps Uber and Careem, Hani now travels with ease across the vast city of 25 million -- notorious for its dusty streets and polluted air.

Google's computer program AlphaGo defeated its human opponent, South Korean Go champion Lee Sedol, on Wednesday in the first face-off of a historic five-game match.

AlphaGo's victory in the ancient Chinese board game is a breakthrough for artificial intelligence, showing the program developed by Google DeepMind has mastered one of the most creative and complex games ever devised.

A website created by two young Jordanians in a coffee shop six years ago has become the most popular site in Arabic, highlighting a vast vacuum: less than 1 percent of the Internet is written in the language spoken by 4.5 percent of the world's population.

The growth of Mawdoo3.com — Arabic for "subject" — is part of a steep rise in Internet use in the Arab world in recent years, along with an Arabic content publishing frenzy in which governments, independent journalists and Islamic militants also compete for page views.