The Afghan Taliban has confirmed that its former leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour was killed in a U.S. drone strike last week and appointed a successor. In a statement sent to news media Wednesday, the insurgent group said its new leader is Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, one of Mansour's two deputies. It said he was chosen at a meeting of Taliban leaders, which was believed to have been held in Pakistan. Mansour was killed in Pakistan on Saturday when his vehicle was struck by a U.S. drone, believed to be the first time a Taliban leader was killed in such a way inside Pakistani territory. Pakistani authorities are believed to support Taliban leaders in cities over the Afghan border. The insurgents have been fighting to overthrow the Kabul government since 2001.

FILE - This Saturday, May 21, 2016 file photo taken by freelance photographer Abdul Malik, purports to show volunteers standing near the wreckage of the destroyed vehicle, in which Mullah Akhtar Mansour was allegedly traveling in the Ahmed Wal area in Baluchistan province of Pakistan, near Afghanistan border. The Afghan Taliban has confirmed that its former leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a U.S. drone strike last week and appointed a successor. In a statement sent to media Wednesday, May 25, 2016, the insurgent group said its new leader is Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, one of two Mansour's deputies.

The Afghan Taliban confirmed on Wednesday that their leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a U.S. drone strike last week and that they have appointed a successor -- a scholar known for extremist views who is unlikely to back a peace process with Kabul. The announcement came as a suicide bomber struck a minibus carrying court employees in the Afghan capital, killing at least 10 people, an official said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement sent to the media, the Taliban said their new leader is Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, one of two of Mansour's deputies. The insurgent group said he was chosen at a meeting of Taliban leaders, which was believed to have been held in Pakistan, but offered no other details.

The Afghan Taliban have named a deputy to former leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour as their new leader, a spokesman said in a statement on Wednesday, the group's first official confirmation that Mansour was killed in a U.S. drone strike. Haibatullah Akhunzada, who was named in a United Nations report last year as the Taliban's former chief justice, is reported to be a respected religious scholar but little is known of his background. Sirajuddin Haqqani, head of a network blamed for many high-profile bombs attacks in Kabul in recent years, and Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, son of former leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, will serve as deputies, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban's main spokesman, said in the statement. "All people are required to obey the new Emir-al-Momineen (commander of the faithful)," the statement said. The announcement, following a meeting of the Taliban's main shura or leadership council, ends three days of confusion during which the Islamist movement had provided no official reaction to the death of Mansour in a drone strike in Pakistan on Saturday.

The collaboration will accelerate the creation of Zebra's imaging analytics engine and create neural networks that will use Zebra's vast imaging dataset to assist radiologists with automated diagnostic algorithms. Kibbutz Shefayim Israel, May 24, 2016 - Zebra Medical Vision is announcing a new collaboration with Intermountain Healthcare, one of the top performing integrated care providers in the U.S. Intermountain plans to work with Zebra to accelerate the creation of meaningful imaging algorithms to improve patient care. Zebra is also announcing today an additional financing round of 12 million led by Intermountain Healthcare, with the participation of existing investors. Zebra Medical Vision was founded in 2014 with the vision of teaching computers to automatically read and diagnose medical imaging data. The company's analytics engine helps physicians and healthcare providers analyze millions of imaging records, in an effort to close the diagnostic gap created by a billion people worldwide joining the middle class in the coming decade, who will require diagnostic services.

Computer scientists have been captivated by the potential of artificial intelligence to create human like experiences with computers for decades. Although we are not at the point of true human intelligence, we have seen great advances in vision, speech, language understanding and knowledge recall that will produce better human computer experiences. This started with investments in speech recognition and natural language processing (NLP) for a variety of uses. Microsoft demonstrated this technology 15 years ago at CES and since then has continued to drive these innovations into products. Having computers mimic human behavior at scale has augmented our lives in useful ways.

China will speed up the development of its artificial intelligence (AI) sector and create a market worth more than 100 billion yuan (USD 15.26 billion) over the next three years, the National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement. By 2018, China shall build platforms for fundamental AI resources and innovation and make breakthroughs on basic core technology, the three-year implementation programme for "Internet Plus" artificial intelligence said. Under the plan, China will cultivate and develop emerging artificial intelligence industries, promote innovation in intelligent products and enhance the intelligence level of terminal products. The programme will involve key projects such as intelligent home appliances, smart automobiles, intelligent unmanned systems, intelligent wearable devices and robots. China will also offer some guarantee measures involving financial support, intellectual property protection, talents and international cooperation, state-run China Daily reported.

Medasense Biometrics Ltd., an Amat Gan, Israel-based medical device company developing a non-invasive, objective pain monitoring technology, completed a Series B financing round. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. Newest investor Baxter Ventures joined the recent round led by Benslie International Ltd. together with am undisclosed global medical technology corporation and other private investors. The company will use the funds to continue global clinical research and market development of its flagship product PMD-200 . Led by Galit Zuckerman, CEO and founder, Medasense is advancing PMD-200, an objective pain monitoring system for non-communicating patients in operating rooms and critical care, aiming to support clinicians in evaluating their patient's pain level in order to optimize pain treatment.

Carmakers Toyota and Volkswagen have struck separate partnerships with rideshare companies Uber and Gett. The Japanese company will invest an unspecified amount in Uber and offer new leasing options for its drivers. Toyota said the two companies would share also knowledge and speed up their research efforts in areas such as driverless cars. Volkswagen announced an investment in Gett, an Israel-based rideshare operator. Toyota said that as patterns of car usage continued to change, it wanted the collaboration to be about more than simply providing vehicles but to also collaborate on technology such as in-car apps.

Adidas, the German maker of sportswear and equipment, has announced it will start marketing its first series of shoes manufactured by robots in Germany from 2017. More than 20 years after Adidas ceased production activities in Germany and moved them to Asia, chief executive Herbert Hainer unveiled to the press the group's new prototype "Speedfactory" in Ansbach, southern Germany. The 4,600-square-metre plant is still being built but Adidas opened it to the press, pledging to automate shoe production – which is currently done mostly by hand in Asia – and enable the shoes to be made more quickly and closer to its sales outlets. The factory will deliver a first test set of around 500 pairs of shoes from the third quarter of 2016. Large-scale production will begin in 2017 and Adidas was planning a second "Speed Factory" in the United States in the same year, said Hainer.