Bahrain urges its citizens to leave Lebanon immediately: foreign ministry

CAIRO (Reuters) – Bahrain called on its citizens on Friday to leave Lebanon immediately due to current events and what the country has witnessed, as the protests in Lebanon enter a second day, according to a statement from the foreign ministry.

The ministry also stressed on its previous statements that Bahrainis must not travel to Lebanon under any circumstances for their own safety.

Security forces chase down Beirut protesters – Reuters witnesses

BEIRUT, Oct 18 (Reuters) – Lebanon’s security forces and riot police chased down protesters in central Beirut on Friday, firing tear gas canisters to disperse the demonstrators, according to Reuters witnesses.

Security forces, in vehicles and on foot, rounded up a number of protesters. Some demonstrators had been smashing storefronts in the commercial district with rods and setting tyres on fire in the street. (Reporting by Ellen Francis and Samia Nakhoul Editing by Samia Nakhoul)

Fatal crash involving self-driving car eyed by US agency

The National Transportation Safety Board is moving to determine the probable cause of the first fatal crash involving a self-driving vehicle.

Interested in Technology?

Elaine Herzberg died in March 2018 when an Uber vehicle struck her as she walked across a darkened street in Tempe, Arizona.

The board will meet Nov. 19 as part of its efforts.

A preliminary report by the board said the Uber autonomous driving system spotted Herzberg before hitting her but a system used to automatically apply brakes in potentially dangerous situations had been disabled.

Authorities say records show the backup driver was streaming a television show on her phone in the moments before the crash.

Prosecutors declined to file charges against Uber, as a corporation, in Herzberg’s death, but they’re still considering whether to charge the driver.

Google affiliate begins drone deliveries in Virginia town

A Google affiliate is using drones to deliver customers’ Walgreens purchases in a test being run in a Virginia town.

Interested in Drones?

Wing, which is owned by Google parent Alphabet, received federal approval earlier this year to make commercial deliveries by drone. It was the first drone company to receive the approval in the U.S., beating out Amazon’s Prime Air.

Wing partnered with Walgreens to perform the tests that began Friday in Christiansburg, Virginia. Walgreens customers in the town will be able to order from a list of more than 100 items and get them delivered to their doors by drones.

The drones will start with a flying radius of about 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) from Wing’s distribution facility in Christiansburg.

Wing has also launched tests in Australia and Helsinki, Finland.

Markets Right Now: Technology stocks lead US indexes lower

The latest on developments in financial markets (all times local):

11:45 a.m.

Continue Reading Below

Stocks are falling on Wall Street in midday trading, weighed down by losses in technology and communications companies.

Microsoft lost 1.8% Friday, and Facebook gave up 2.5%.

Makers of consumer products were bucking the downward trend. Coca-Cola rose 1.8% after turning in a solid quarterly earnings report.

The market is still on track for its second weekly gain after three straight losing weeks.

The S&P 500 fell 12 points, or 0.4%, to 2,985.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 123 points, or 0.5%, to 26,900. The Nasdaq fell 81 points, or 1%, to 8,075.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.74%.

___

9:35 a.m.

Stocks are opening slightly lower on Wall Street but are still on track for their second weekly gain in a row.

Technology and industrial companies were falling the most in early trading Friday. Micron Technology fell 2.1% and Waste Management gave up 1.2%.

Earnings reports from U.S. companies continued to flow in. Intuitive Surgical jumped 5.1% after reporting profits that easily beat analysts' forecasts.

The S&P 500 slipped less than 1 point to 2,997.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 40 points, or 0.1%, to 26,985. The Nasdaq fell 6 points, or 0.1%, to 8,147.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury held steady at 1.75%.

The Word of the Year Says a Lot About American History: Here’s Every One Since 1990

The English language is constantly evolving. As communities absorb different cultures and new ideas emerge, people develop more accurate ways to express themselves. This has been the case for centuries, as slang terms have become commonly spoken only to eventually fall out of favor. Here are 32 popular slang terms no one uses anymore.

New phrases are often coined to capture new thoughts, phenomena, or ideas that are in the public consciousness. In the 1990s, with the internet entering many American homes for the first time, pre-existing words like “bug” suddenly had a whole new definition, as a computer flaw or virus. The internet also provided the medium needed to help these new words be widely shared around the world and be used in daily life.

To identify the top word every year since 1990, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the list of Words of the Year organized by the American Dialect Society (ADS). Words of the year are voted on at the ADS annual conference that takes place in January each year.

These words are highly location-dependent. In recent years, many of the words of the year have come from significant news events in American politics, like the Black Lives Matter movement or the Trump administration itself. Some of these terms may be unknown to those even in an English-speaking foreign country, just as those countries’ slang would be foreign to us. These are some Canadian slang phrases Americans don’t get.

Click here to see what every word of the year since 1990 says about American history.