The ancient ruins of Palmyra, one of Syria's oldest cities, have stood for 3,000 years, but, since last May, the Unesco World Heritage site has been facing some of the most brutal threats to its existence. Located in an oasis northeast of the Syrian capital of Damascus, Palmyra has become a significant symbolic and military position in the now 5-year-old Syrian conflict. After seizing the city of roughly 50,000 residents last May, the Islamic State group was forced out of Palmyra over the weekend by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad. On a strategic level, retaking Palmyra gives the Syrian regime a strong military base for future operations against the militants' other strongholds as well as renewed control over some of Syria's most important oil and gas fields. But regaining Palmyra is also a highly symbolic win for the Syrian regime -- now trying to salvage whatever is left of the ancient ruins -- in its quest to position itself as a key partner in the fight against the terrorist group, also known as ISIS. An aerial view of the historic city of Palmyra, in Homs Goveronorate, Syria, is seen in this still image taken from a drone video, March 28, 2016.

Using AI and data science, an MIT team was able to accurately predict rogue waves coming out of the blue in the middle of the ocean, in near real time, to help sailors change their navigation path and avoid destruction and death. Rogue waves, while rare, are unpredictable, tall (up to 100 feet) and devastating. The physical mechanism producing these waves is well understood, and is typically modeled using rotating elements. Out of curiosity, I produced a video a few years ago, with rotating elements - this was a pure mathematical simulation just for fun - and it turns out that it models pretty well the mechanism that turns regular waves into rogue waves. The intent was to have some mathematical fun: indeed I called my video "belly dancing mathematics" as it also models that process quite well.

And the artificial intelligence chatbot that didn't survive a day on the Internet. Plus: Reviewing Santiago Calatrava's latest, how to be unprofessional and the "Grand Theft Auto" modification that may have you watching for hours on end. Time has Russian drone footage that provides an overview of what remains of the old Silk Road crossroads, as well as the contemporary human settlement of Tadmur that sits nearby. About 80% of the artifacts appear to be largely intact. The country's antiquities chief says repairs will take five years.

General Motors received quick regulatory approval of its acquisition of Cruise Automation, the three-year-old startup that has developed a "highway autopilot" product that could accelerate GM's quest for a fully autonomous car. A spokeswoman for the Federal Trade Commission said the agency granted expedited approval, saying the transaction would not violate anti-trust laws. GM did not disclose the purchase price, but some media outlets have reported the automaker paid 1 billion for the small San Francisco company. The companies expect to complete the deal by the end of June. Cruise has developed a device that enables drivers to take their car onto the highway, then they can push a button that transfers control of the accelerator, brakes and steering.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

At one of the busiest shipping terminals in the U.S., more than two dozen giant red robots wheeled cargo containers along the docks on a recent morning, handing the boxes off to another set of androids gliding along long rows of stacked containers before smoothly setting the boxes down in precise spots. The tightly designed dance at TraPac LLC's Los Angeles terminal offers a window on how global trade will move in the near future: using highly automated systems and machinery, with minimal human intervention, to handle the flood of goods that new free-trade agreements will push to the docks. Many in the industry believe automation, which boosts terminal productivity and reliability while cutting labor costs, is critical to the ability of ports to cope with the surging trade volumes and the huge megaships that are beginning to arrive in the U.S. Analysts estimate the technology can reduce the amount of time ships spend in port and improve productivity by as much as 30%. "We have to do it for productivity purposes, to stay relevant and to be able to service these large ships," said Peter Stone, a member of TraPac's board. Yet the TraPac site is one of only four cargo terminals in the U.S. using the technology.

There's a new kind of software that claims to help law enforcement agencies reduce crime, by using algorithms to predict where crimes will happen and directing more officers to those areas. It's called "predictive policing," and it's already being used by dozens of police departments all over the country, including the Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta Police Departments. Aside from the obvious "Minority Report" pre-crime allusions, there has been a tremendous amount of speculation about what the future of predictive policing might hold. Could people be locked up just because a computer model says that they are likely to commit a crime? Could all crime end altogether, because an artificial intelligence gets so good at predicting when crimes will occur?

It's hard enough for non-technical users to deal with ransomware infections: understanding public-key cryptography, connecting to the Tor anonymity network and paying with Bitcoin cryptocurrency. A new malicious program now makes it even more difficult by completely locking victims out of their computers. The new Petya ransomware overwrites the master boot record (MBR) of the affected PCs, leaving their operating systems in an unbootable state, researchers from antivirus firm Trend Micro said in a blog post. The MBR is the code stored in the first sectors of a hard disk drive. It contains information about the disk's partitions and launches the operating system's boot loader.

It's hard enough for non-technical users to deal with ransomware infections: understanding public-key cryptography, connecting to the Tor anonymity network and paying with Bitcoin cryptocurrency. A new malicious program now makes it even more difficult by completely locking victims out of their computers. The new Petya ransomware overwrites the master boot record (MBR) of the affected PCs, leaving their operating systems in an unbootable state, researchers from antivirus firm Trend Micro said in a blog post. The MBR is the code stored in the first sectors of a hard disk drive. It contains information about the disk's partitions and launches the operating system's boot loader.

I am from Kashmir, a region prone to earthquakes and floods. When I was 17 years old, in 2005, 70,000 people lost their lives in an earthquake in my hometown. This event compelled me to study engineering and specifically in 2005, start performing earthquake engineering research. Then, in 2014, a combination of two events on different sides of the world inspired the creation of One Concern. In 2014, during a break from graduate school at Stanford, I was visiting my parents in Kashmir when a large flood engulfed the state.