Paris, France | AFP | France will require telecommunications companies to allow more government oversight and control of the equipment required for next-generation 5G wireless networks due to security concerns, a government official said Tuesday. The move comes as several Western nations have barred China’s Huawei from participating in contracts for …
Read More »Mnangagwa loses ‘reformist’ claims after new crackdown
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | After Zimbabwe’s authoritarian leader Robert Mugabe was forced from power, his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa declared the country had turned the page on repression. Today, such claims sound deeply hollow as Zimbabwe reels from its second crackdown on protest in less than six months, analysts …
Read More »Entebbe Airport to get self-check-in service
Gemalto awarded contract for Uganda’s new e-Immigration solution Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Gemalto, in cooperation with local partner SCINTL, has been awarded the contract for the supply of a Border Management System (BMS); including airport self-service eKiosks at Entebbe International Airport. The appetite for automated, self-service travel experiences …
Read More »Decades of Franco-German friendship
Berlin, Germany | AFP | Enemies during both world wars, France and Germany have since forged a close friendship, acting together as the powerhouse driving the European Union. Below are highlights of their relations since the end of World War II: – Beginnings of EU – – May 9, 1950: French …
Read More »In China, unhappiness tracks poor air quality
Paris, France | AFP | Eye-watering, throat-scratching air pollution is a major driver of big city blues in China, according to a study published Monday that matched social network chatter with fine-particle pollution levels. “The take-away is simple,” lead author Siqi Zheng, an associate professor at MIT and director of the …
Read More »A history of armed attempts to dislodge Venezuela’s Maduro
Caracas, Venezuela | AFP | Monday’s brief mutiny by Venezuelan soldiers was not the first time President Nicolas Maduro has faced a military challenge to his leadership. Since coming to power in 2013 following the death of socialist revolutionary icon Hugo Chaves, the former bus driver Maduro has faced a number …
Read More »Ronaldo avoids jail but hit by hefty fine for tax fraud in Spain
Madrid, Spain | AFP | Cristiano Ronaldo avoided jail on Tuesday but was ordered by a Spanish court to pay 3.57 million euros ($4.1 million) for committing tax fraud when he was at Real Madrid. The court sentenced him to a two-year jail sentence that it immediately reduced to a fine of 365,000 euros, which …
Read More »Endangered in Ivory Coast: traditional priestesses
ANIANSUE, Ivory Coast | AFP | A dozen women, their bodies coated with clay, sway to beating drums as if in a trance, ankle bells jingling as they stamp their feet, in the eastern Ivorian town of Aniansue. They are training to become certified “komians”, or priestesses, steeped in traditional …
Read More »Steely Serena in ‘different space’, ready for record Slam win – coach
Melbourne, Australia | AFP | Serena Williams is emotionally and physically ready to win another Grand Slam, unlike during her famous meltdown in the final of the US Open last year, according to coach Patrick Mouratoglou. The 37-year-old American stormed past top seed Simona Halep to reach the quarter-finals at the …
Read More »China’s second gene-edited foetus is 12-14 weeks old: scientist
Beijing, China | AFP | The second woman carrying a gene-edited foetus in China is now 12 to 14 weeks into her pregnancy, according to a US physician in close contact with the researcher who claimed to have created the world’s first genetically-modified babies last year. Chinese scientist He Jiankui …
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