An air attack in Ethiopia's northern region of Tigray on Monday killed at least 17 people, mostly women, and wounded dozens in the town of Mai Tsebri, two aid workers have told Reuters news agency, citing local authorities and witnesses. Monday's attack came on the day US President Joe Biden in a phone call raised concerns with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed about civilian casualties and suffering caused by air attacks. At least 56 people were killed and 30 injured, including some children, in a drone attack on a camp for displaced people in Tigray on Friday. A report by the zonal administration said women at a flour mill made up most of the casualties in Monday's drone attack, a source who saw the report told The Associated Press news agency. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak about it to reporters.

Taiwan's parliament has passed an extra spending bill of $8.6bn, in the latest bid to boost defence capabilities against growing military threats from China. Lawmakers on Tuesday agreed unanimously to pass the special budget, which comes on top of a record annual defence budget of about $17bn set for 2022. The additional resources are aimed at acquiring precision missiles and mass-manufacture high-efficiency naval ships "in the shortest period of time" to boost the island's sea and air capabilities, the government said. The budget includes a coastal anti-ship missiles system, a locally developed Wan Chien (Ten Thousand Swords) cruise missile as well as an attack drone system and installation of combat systems on coastguard ships. Democratic Taiwan lives under constant threat of an invasion by authoritarian China, which claims the self-ruled island as part of its territory.

NASA's Perseverance rover hit a snag while trying to capture its latest piece of rock from Mars, with a pebble-sized bit of debris stopping it from storing the sample. The SUV-sized vehicle has been on the Red Planet since February 2021, and is slowly trundling through the Jezero Crater taking rock samples for later retrieval. The Perseverance team, tweeting as the rover, wrote: 'I recently captured my sixth rock core and have encountered a new challenge. Seems some pebble-sized debris is obstructing my robotic arm from handing off the tube for sealing/storage.' It retrieved the sample on December 29, or sol 306 on Mars, where it successfully cored and extracted the sample, but the transfer to the tube failed. On January 7, NASA discovered there was a small piece of rock inside the entrance to the tube docking area, blocking it from entering.

Transacting has changed dramatically due to the global pandemic. E-commerce, cloud computing and enhanced cybersecurity measures are all part of the global trend assessment for data analysis. Businesses have always had to consider how to manage risk and keep costs low. Any company that wants to be competitive must have access to machine learning technology that can effectively analyze data. The industry's top data analysis trends for 2022 should give our creators an idea of where it is headed.

The age of robots and artificial intelligence is in its early stages – robots are here to stay for a long time and generations to come. For decades, robots have played a significant role in sci-fi movies and our imaginations in tandem. Today, some household appliances such as automated vacuums are robotic. Such popular robotic appliances coupled with IoT functionality are very promising. The innovations keep getting more exciting.

Taiwan's parliament on Tuesday passed an extra spending bill of nearly $8.6 billion in its latest bid to boost defence capabilities against an increasingly bellicose China. The government proposed a five-year special defence budget of around TW$237.3 billion from 2022 as Chinese warplanes breached its air defence zone at unprecedented levels last year. Democratic Taiwan lives under constant threat of an invasion by authoritarian China, which claims the self-ruled island as part of its territory to be seized one day -- by force if necessary. Beijing's sabre-rattling towards the island has increased considerably since President Tsai Ing-wen came to power in 2016, as she regards the island as a sovereign nation and not part of "one China." Last year, Taiwan recorded incursions by around 970 Chinese warplanes into its air defence zone, according to a database compiled by AFP, more than double the roughly 380 carried out in 2020.

In April 2021, the European Commission published its draft regulation on AI, the first of its kind, with an aim to develop a bespoke regulatory framework on AI technology. The proposed regulation, if adopted in its current form, looks to introduce: a strict regime and mandatory requirements for "high-risk" AI, such as AI systems used to evaluate creditworthiness or establish credit scores; limited requirements for specific types of AI, such as chatbots; and a ban on certain uses of AI, such as AI systems that deploy subliminal techniques beyond a person's consciousness. The regulation will apply to users and providers of AI based in the EU. It will also regulate providers and users of AI systems that are established in a third country, where AI systems are located in the EU or to the extent the output produced by systems in a third country are used in the EU. The proposed regulation was open for consultation last year.

Quantum computing has experienced unprecedented growth and interest over the last two years due in large part to companies like Honeywell, IBM, Google, and Intel. We've also seen new up and coming players like IonQ and Rigetti step into the foray to advance the technology. And while the field is still rapidly evolving, there has been some major advancements as companies have tapped into the power of quantum computing to help with research and development in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries, mitigate risk in the finance industry, and aid in cybersecurity across a multitude of industries. But I don't think the growth will stop there. In my Digital Transformation Trends predictions for 2021, I proposed that Quantum would go mainstream, and while it missed the 2022 list, I do think the momentum will continue for Quantum this year.

In the Arizona desert, a pair of robots methodically trundles back-and-forth across the craggy earth. Bulky, angular and slow, they're not terribly impressive to watch. But U.S. Army leaders see these robots as a vision of the future: part of a new pipeline to put better, more reliable technology into the hands of soldiers faster than ever before. A year earlier, at the first-ever Project Convergence, held in 2020 at Yuma Proving Ground, users had to tell the robot to go from point A to point B to point C to conduct a reconnaissance mission. For the 2021 event, users simply gave the robots a designated area for the same task, and the system turned to artificial intelligence to determine the best path. The robots demonstrated how they could keep soldiers out of harm's way, allow for sensors in new positions that were previously impractical and present new data to commanders.

Motivated by the tremendous progress we witnessed in recent years, this paper presents a survey of the scientific literature on the topic of Collaborative Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (C-SLAM), also known as multi-robot SLAM. With fleets of self-driving cars on the horizon and the rise of multi-robot systems in industrial applications, we believe that Collaborative SLAM will soon become a cornerstone of future robotic applications. In this survey, we introduce the basic concepts of C-SLAM and present a thorough literature review. We also outline the major challenges and limitations of C-SLAM in terms of robustness, communication, and resource management. We conclude by exploring the area's current trends and promising research avenues.