BDL Accelerate 2015 will gather entrepreneurs, investors, and support institutions from key emerging startup ecosystems across 5 continents. BDL Accelerate 2015 will host 3,000 attendees, 100 speakers, 100 exhibitors, and 100 startups from around the world. BDL Accelerate 2015 will be hosting 2 startup competitions, 2 workshop spaces and 2 hackathons.

Hackathon is not a word one hears everyday but in the tech world it is not so foreign. A Hackathon is an event that provides space for creatives and tech-geeks to come together, form groups around a challenge or idea and collaboratively create unique solutions from scratch. The end result could be a website, mobile app or even a robot.

Heavily reliant on coal-fired electricity, South Africa is launching ambitious new projects aimed at diversifying its energy sources and avoiding the regular power cuts that have hobbled the economy in recent years.

Solar and wind energy plants are mushrooming across the country while the government is planning a huge -- and controversial -- expansion of nuclear power.

Bombed-out buildings tower overhead, and rubble is piled high in the deserted streets of Syria's onetime economic hub Aleppo. Gunshots can be heard in the distance.

The destruction of four years of civil war is overwhelming -- and then you switch your phone off.

Rising from the desert outside Abu Dhabi, Masdar city is laying the groundwork for when the United Arab Emirates' oil wells run dry.

Driverless electric cars shuttle between energy-saving buildings topped with arrays of solar panels.

It could be a merry holiday season for hackers, with millions of new and potentially vulnerable Internet-connected gadgets hitting the market.

Security experts say the vulnerabilities of "Internet of Things" devices such as fitness bands, smartwatches, drones and connected appliances could be exploited as consumers adopt these products for the holiday season.

Lack of a long-awaited turnaround at Yahoo has put pressure on chief executive Marissa Mayer to prove she has what it takes to revive the faded Internet pioneer.

Investors, who were already disappointed by low momentum under Mayer, were given more to worry about this week.

Britain's communications intelligence agency said on Thursday it had spray-painted job adverts on London streets popular with hipsters to woo more employees with cyber skills.

East London's gritty but funky Shoreditch area is more known for its bearded and tattooed denizens than the posh, well-dressed agents associated with British intelligence, but officials say they are trying to break the mold.

The instant messenger app Telegram, created by Russian Internet guru Pavel Durov, says it has blocked 78 accounts associated with the jihadist Islamic State group following the attacks in Paris.

"We were disturbed to learn that Telegram's public channels were being used by ISIS to spread their propaganda," the service said on its own account late Wednesday.

Wish there was a gadget able to transform your boring office uniform into a party outfit, or even a device that guides you straight to new friends?

Then call Marcelo Coelho.

Android-powered smartphones extended their lead in the global marketplace in the third quarter, helped by growth in emerging markets, a survey showed Wednesday.

The Google-powered operating system was used in 84.7 percent of smartphones sold worldwide in the quarter, up from 83.3 percent a year earlier, the Gartner survey showed.