Kim Kardashian West tweeted last year that she had made $80m (£62m) from her video game app.

Her latest project, ScreenShop, could see her add some serious cash to her tech empire as it's released worldwide.

The app, which lets social media users buy what they see in posts, is something Kardashian West says she has "never seen before".

It works on platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat by matching clothes you see on them to the exact items.

The reaction hasn't been entirely positive, though, with some bloggers afraid that the app will stop them from earning commission from sales via their own social media platforms.

ScreenShop also offers you cheaper alternatives because items on celebrities are likely to be designer or have high prices.

The app partners with company Farfetch to provide the technology to show copies and similar items.

This feature is something Kardashian West approves of. "I obviously want to invest my time in projects that I really think people would want and things I haven't seen before," she tells Vogue.

"Shoppers are so much more visual and so much more creative than maybe in the past.

"I truly think if they see something worn a certain way, if you market it that way and merchandise it that way in the store, people will buy it."

Katie Baron, a fashion writer and global head of retail at Stylus Media Group, tells the BBC that Kardashian West's app "means serious business in an era where instant digital gratification is pretty much expected".

"It's not quite as seamless as the initial headline may suggest," she says. "You still need to take a screenshot, upload it, scour through the various options and then be redirected to a retail website to buy.

"But it's possibly one of the best tools to date for translating the power of social media, driven by a youth sector who talk a largely visual language, into cold hard cash.

"Brands, of course, just have to hope that these social media fashion fans don't always go for the budget option, or that there's a way within the app to surface their products. Without that, many brands will be left in the cold."

ScreenShop has struck commission deals with big name brands ASOS, Topshop, Boohoo and Forever 21.

These companies will provide a databases of items and better matches of clothes, but other retailers' items will still be featured as part of search results...

 

Breast cancer can resurface after remaining dormant for 15 years following successful treatment, a study has found.

Women with large tumours and cancer that had spread to the lymph nodes had the highest 40% risk of it coming back.

Researchers writing in the New England Journal of Medicine said extending treatment with hormone therapy could reduce the risk of it recurring.

Scientists analysed the progress of 63,000 women for 20 years.

All had the most common form of breast cancer.

This is a type fuelled by the hormone oestrogen which can stimulate cancer cells to grow and divide.

Every patient received treatments such as tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors which block the effects of oestrogen or shut off the hormone's supply.

Although after five years of treatment their cancers had gone, over the next 15 years a steady number of women found that their cancer spread throughout their body - some up to 20 years after diagnosis.

Women who originally had large tumours and cancer that had spread to four or more lymph nodes were at highest risk of the cancer returning the next 15 years, the study said.

Women with small, low-grade cancers and no spread to the lymph nodes had a much lower 10% risk of cancer spread over that time.

'Remarkable'

Lead researcher Dr Hongchao Pan, from University of Oxford, said: "It is remarkable that breast cancer can remain dormant for so long and then spread many years later, with this risk remaining the same year after year and still strongly related to the size of the original cancer and whether it had spread to the (lymph) nodes."

Doctors have long known that five years of tamoxifen reduces the risk of recurrence by about a third in the five years after stopping treatment.

Recent research has suggested that extending hormone therapy to 10 years may be more effective at preventing breast cancer recurrence and death.

Aromatase inhibitors, which only work for post-menopausal women, are believed to be even more effective.

But there are side effects with hormone treatments which can affect patients' quality of life and cause them to stop taking the pills.

These include menopausal symptoms, osteporosis, joint pain and carpal tunnel syndrome.

Prof Arnie Purushotham, senior clinical adviser at Cancer Research UK, which funded the study, said that since the research began, new drugs had been used to treat breast cancer and those worked in different ways to tamoxifen.

He said: "It's vital that work continues to better predict which cancers might return.

"We also need to know what the difference for women might be in taking hormone therapies for 10 years instead of five, the side effects and how this affects patients' quality of life."

Sally Greenbook, from charity Breast Cancer Now, said it was essential that women discussed any changes in treatment with their doctor.

"We would urge all women who have had treatment for breast cancer not to be alarmed, but to ensure they are aware of the signs of recurrence and of metastatic breast cancer, and to speak to their GP or breast care team if they have any concerns."

The ex-wife of Texas church gunman Devin Kelley has said he subjected her to abuse and violence, and threatened to kill her and her entire family.

Kelley "had a lot of demons or hatred inside of him", said Tessa Brennaman, 25, in an interview with CBS News.

The former US Air Force airman pleaded guilty in 2013 to hitting, choking and kicking Ms Brennaman, and to fracturing the skull of her young son.

He was sentenced to a year in military prison and demoted over the incident.

In her first interview since Kelley shot and killed 26 people at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas on 5 November, Ms Brennaman described how he once threatened to kill her for getting a speeding ticket.

"He had a gun in his holster right here and he took that gun out and he put it to my temple and he told me, 'Do you want to die? Do you want to die?'" she said.

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• The loopholes that let domestic abusers keep their guns
• Is domestic violence a common theme in mass shootings?
• FBI seeks to unlock Texas shooter's iPhone

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Kelley also wounded 20 people in the shooting. Outside the church, he dropped the military-style AR-15 rifle he used in the massacre and drove away from the scene in his truck, pursued by two bystanders, before shooting himself dead with a handgun.

Kelley had been banned from buying or owning a gun after his domestic violence conviction but his conviction "was not entered into the National Criminal Information Center database", the Air Force revealed in the wake of the shooting.

People with domestic violence convictions are barred from owning firearms, but laws, which vary from state to state, are beset by loopholes and lack of enforcement.

Gun safety campaign group Every Town For Gun Safety found that in 54% of the 156 mass shootings between 2009 and 2016, the victims were current or former intimate partners or other family members.

More than 50 women in the US every month are killed by former partners, according to data compiled by Everytown, and the presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation makes it five times more likely that a woman will be killed.

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Devin Kelley's brushes with the law and the military

• A series of legal troubles began in 2012 when he was court-martialled and sentenced to a year in military prison for assaulting his wife and child
• In the same year Tessa Kelley filed court papers to divorce Kelley, with her wish being speedily granted. There were no children listed in the proceedings
• After his jail term ended in 2014, Kelley was demoted in rank and released from the military with a bad conduct discharge
• In August 2014 he again appeared in court - this time charged with mistreating, neglecting or being cruel to animals. The case was eventually dismissed

The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah has accused Saudi Arabia of declaring war on his country, days after Lebanese PM Saad al-Hariri announced his resignation in the Saudi capital.

Hassan Nasrallah said Saudi Arabia was holding Mr Hariri against his will.

He also accused the Saudis of inciting Israel against Lebanon.

The powerful Hezbollah Shia movement is an ally of Iran, which has been trading accusations with the Saudis of fuelling tension in Lebanon and the region.

Mr Hariri said in a TV broadcast from Riyadh on Saturday he was stepping down because of an unspecified threat to his life. He also attacked Hezbollah and Iran.

However, Lebanese President Michel Aoun and other senior politicians have demanded his return, amid suspicions that he is being held by the Saudis under house arrest and forced to do their bidding.

Mr Aoun has not accepted Mr Hariri's resignation.

Mr Hariri has still not spoken publicly since his announcement.

• Iran and Saudi Arabia: Who's siding with whom
• Lebanon caught in crosshairs of Saudi-Iran tension
• Riyadh's night of long knives and long-range missiles

What did the Hezbollah leader say?

In a televised speech on Friday, Mr Nasrallah said Saudi Arabia was trying to provoke fighting amongst the Lebanese.

"In short, it is clear that Saudi Arabia and Saudi officials have declared war on Lebanon and on Hezbollah in Lebanon, but I have to say this is a war on Lebanon," he said.

Mr Nasrallah also accused Saudi Arabia of being prepared to pay "billions" to Israel for a military strike against Lebanon, describing this as the "most dangerous thing".

Image copyrightEPA

Image captionMr Hariri (R) was seen meeting the Saudi king on Monday

At the weekend the Hezbollah leader had said that Mr Hariri had been forced to resign by the Saudis, but he repeated the allegations on Friday, saying that this was now "beyond any doubt".

Saudi Arabia was attempting to remove Mr Hariri as prime minister and impose a new leadership on his political movement, he said.

BBC Middle East editor Sebastian Usher says Mr Nasrallah's words were delivered as calmly as ever - but they will inevitably raise the temperature further as a growing number of countries outside the region try to calm the crisis.

How has the international community reacted?

There are fears Lebanon could become embroiled in a wider regional confrontation between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Tensions between the three countries have soared since Mr Hariri announced his resignation.

But US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned against Lebanon being used for a proxy conflict, adding that the US strongly backed Lebanon's independence.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that a new conflict in the region would have "devastating consequences".

On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron paid an unscheduled visit to Saudi Arabia, to emphasise to Saudi leaders the importance of stability in Lebanon.

France has historical ties with Lebanon, as its former colonial power before it gained independence during World War Two.

Earlier on Thursday, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies told their citizens in Lebanon to leave the country immediately.

The move came after Riyadh accused Iran of "direct military aggression", saying it supplied a missile which it says was fired by Hezbollah at Riyadh from Yemen on Saturday.

Iran has dismissed the Saudi allegations as "false and dangerous".

A koala has been found dead with its ears cut off in Australia, amid what police say is a spate of cruelty cases involving native animals.

The marsupial was found on a road in Warrnambool, about 250km (150 miles) west of Melbourne, on Monday.

It is not clear whether the koala was alive when mutilated, authorities said.

Police described the case as "disturbing" and said it followed similar mutilations involving kangaroos and wallabies.

"There is no reason for anybody to wish to treat an animal in this way, whether alive or dead," said Sgt Pat Day, in a video posted by the Warrnambool Standard.

Police did not give details of other recent cruelty cases, but said no others had targeted a koala.

• Koala survives 16km ride on car axle

In June, a kangaroo was found shot dead and tied to a chair, with a liquor bottle, in Melbourne.

Koalas are native to Australia and classified as a "vulnerable" species. There are fewer than 100,000 left in the wild, according to the Australian Koala Foundation.

Police have appealed for help to find the perpetrator.

Editor’s note: AJ Redmer is the region head of North America Studios and VP of gumi Inc.

Asia has inspired and dominated the global video-game market since the past decade and has given no sign of relinquishing its throne. Japan and China represent two of the top three video-game markets in the world, and the Asia-Pacific region generated $12.2 billion in mobile game revenue in 2014, as compared to $4.9 billion and $3.2 billion for North America and Western Europe, respectively.

These staggering numbers are partly the result of supportive local ecosystems for game development, which encourage both large corporations and independent developers to thrive. For instance, Tencent had more revenue than Activision-Blizzard in 2013 thanks to its majority ownership of Riot Games, maker of League of Legends.

South Korea alone has four mobile game companies that are part of the billion dollar valuation club (Com2uS, BCSoft, Nexon and Smilegate), and 80,000 Chinese app developers released a staggering 100 games daily in 2013.  Also keep in mind that Japanese telecom giant SoftBank owns a majority of Finland-founded Supercell, and Tencent bought 40 percent of Epic Games, which is based in North Carolina.

These companies have met with tremendous success due largely to innovative mobile-first strategies. Let’s take a look at some clever Asian mobile game mechanics that I predict will influence how the rest of the world plays.

Chatting to the Top of the Charts

The competition among messaging apps in Asia is fierce. A “wicked chat war” is brewing among a handful of powerful companies to win the “hearts and devices” of the region’s 4.4 billion potential users. The contenders include China’s WeChat, Japan’s Line, South Korea’s Kakao Talk, and WhatsApp, which is now owned by Facebook.

In an effort to win this battle, each of these companies is expanding their scope beyond simple (and free) chat functionalities by offering a slew of social networking and entertainment features. The ultimate goal is to become a portal for other types of mobile services that present better monetization opportunities — like games.

Games work well in chat apps because they can easily leverage social mechanics to bring people into the games, and have the bonus of a built-in audience. A prime example of this is Candy Crush prompting players to send invitations to their friends so they can get more in-game play time. Another benefit is that games increase time spent in chat apps.

WeChat, Kakao Talk, and Line have all integrated mobile games into their messaging platforms and seen results. Line revealed last year that the biggest source of its revenue are free-to-play games that make money from in-game purchases, and Kakao Talk earned $54 million off games in the third quarter of 2014. It’s only a matter of time before Western companies try to recreate the success of their Asian counterparts.

Proximity Gaming

To put it simply, there are a lot of games out there. Discoverability is one of the biggest concerns and biggest hurdles for app developers today, and many are willing to go to great lengths to break through the noise. In Asian markets, location is proving to be a powerful tool for helping people discover new and relevant games. The Chinese flirting app Momo shows what games people nearby are playing. It currently claims 180.3 million users in China and 60.2 million monthly active users, and it expanded its user base by 160 percent in a year. It’s also worth $3 billion.

Enabling people to connect via proximity is one of the major “secrets” of Momo’s success. Leveraging location is also a brilliant way to keep your finger on the latest commute boredom-buster and provide that ‘crowded room’ atmosphere that makes gaming feel like a communal activity rather than a solitary diversion.

Soon, we will start to see more apps in the West harness these powerful network effects by adding the ability to chat and interact with people nearby, gather info on local events, etc. This strategy increases discoverability and helps developers create a vibrant and growing community around their apps.

Kickstarting New Gaming Levels Via Crowd Downloads

The old adage “a rising tide lifts all boats” can be applied to mobile gaming. The basic idea here is to get every player invested in a game’s success by tying unlocks to download numbers. This great innovation comes from Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Final Fantasy. His mobile game Terra Battle introduced a novel promotional plan he refers to as a “download-starter” (à la Kickstarter).

This means that in order to unlock additional content, the game has to reach certain download milestones. The more people play, the better the game gets with new music, new storylines and new characters — and new missions emerge. Every player thus becomes highly motivated to promote the game.

Certainly, Sakaguchi’s pedigree helped get this game on the map in the first place, and the team did an outstanding job of executing this approach by pulling in well-known composers, illustrators, etc. to drum up excitement. However, that’s not to say that other games couldn’t also reap the benefits of this strategy.

What other new innovations are inspiring the world, and will Asia continue to dominate the industry?

Casetext, a Y Combinator-backed legal tech startup that is both a community site for attorneys to share knowledge and a service that gives users free access to legal texts annotated by attorneys, today announced that it has raised a $7 million Series A round led by Union Square Ventures. Other participants in this round include Formation 8 and former Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer, as well as existing investors. This round brings Casetext’s total funding to $8.8 million.

As Casetext CEO Jake Heller told me, the company was able to grow quickly on the back of its seed funding, and the site now has over 250,000 visitors every month. The site currently features over 100,000 posts from about 35,000 users. “We decided to raise now to build on our initial successes,” he told me. “We need to expand our team to tackle some of our most ambitious technological goals, and we’ll increase the coverage of our legal library so that more attorneys can rely on Casetext as their primary source of legal information.”

He also noted that USV was a natural choice to lead the investment because of its investment history, but also because two of its five partners are lawyers, including John Buttrick, who will join Casetext’s board.