Israeli army withdraws from northern Gaza

STORY: Israeli army withdraws from northern Gaza SHOOTING TIME: FILE DATELINE: Feb. 2, 2024 LENGTH: 00:00:59 LOCATION: GAZA CATEGORY: MILITARY SHOTLIST: 1. various of file footage of the Israeli army's ground operation STORYLINE: The Israeli army has withdrawn from wide areas in the northern Gaza Strip for the first time since the start of the ground operation, eyewitnesses said on Thursday. It is not clear whether the withdrawal is permanent or just a repositioning of Israeli forces, as there has been no comment from the Israeli army about the move. After the Israeli withdrawal, dozens of citizens headed to those areas to inspect their homes, while others retrieved the bodies of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army, according to witnesses. The withdrawal came following reports indicating progress in negotiations between Israel and Hamas, which may lead to a ceasefire and the release of Israeli prisoners. On Sunday, senior intelligence and government officials from the U.S., Israel, Qatar and Egypt

Public health conference in Africa opens in Zambia

STORY: Public health conference in Africa opens in Zambia SHOOTING TIME: Nov. 27, 2023 DATELINE: Nov. 28, 2023 LENGTH: 00:02:22 LOCATION: Lusaka CATEGORY: HEALTH SHOTLIST: 1. various of event 2. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, Zambian President 3. various of event 4. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): SAARA KUUGONGELWA-AMADHILA, Prime Minister of Namibia 5. various of event 6. SOUNDBITE 3 (English): JEAN KASEYA, Director-General of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa-CDC) STORYLINE: The Third International Conference on Public Health in Africa (CPHIA) opened in Lusaka Monday with a call for increased partnership and investment to improve healthcare delivery. Held under the theme, "Breaking Barriers: Repositioning Africa in the Global Health Architecture," the four-day conference has brought together researchers, policymakers, health ministers, among others to share scientific findings, collaborate on research and implementation as well as chart a secure future for the continent.

Biden approves redeployment of U.S. troops to Somalia

STORY: Biden approves redeployment of U.S. troops to Somalia DATELINE: May 17, 2022 LENGTH: 00:01:36 LOCATION: Washington D.C. CATEGORY: POLITICS/MILITARY SHOTLIST: 1. SOUNDBITE (English): KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, White House Press Secretary 2. various of the White House STORYLINE: U.S. President Joe Biden has approved a plan to redeploy U.S. troops to the eastern African country of Somalia to counter the extremist group al-Shabab, the White House said on Monday. SOUNDBITE (English): KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, White House Press Secretary "The President has approved a request from the Secretary of Defense to reestablish a persistent U.S. military presence in Somalia to enable a more effective fight against al-Shabaab, which has increased in strength and poses a heightened threat. This is a repositioning of forces already in theater who have traveled in and out of Somalia on an episodic basis since the previous administration made the decision to withdraw. That was back in January of 2021, as you might recall. As we've

A twin-armed robot by Professor Tetsuya Ogata and his colleagues at Waseda University

A twin-armed robot by Professor Tetsuya Ogata and his colleagues at Waseda University

Professor Tetsuya Ogata and his teamat Waseda University have developed a technology that allows a deep learning model to learn and perform multiple actions. They demonstrated the function by applying it to a twin-armed robot folding towels.In the case of folding towels, four motions were learned, including folding the towel from the edge and repositioning the towel. We trained the deep learning model so that the internal state of the model is the same at the beginning and end of each action. For each of the four actions, we used a large deep learning model with about 300 cells and 400 steps. In this study, we learned multiple actions by connecting them to a single model. In the future, we will apply the model to complex operations such as skewering to verify the learning method suitable for each operation. The technology for using deep learning to identify images is already in the practical stage. Photo taken on October 16, 2019, credit: Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun / Kyodo News Images