AFP
13875 articles published since 08 Mar 2022
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Poor countries call for debt revolution at UN summit
Worn down by growing debt and a barrage of crises, leaders of the world's poorest countries have stepped up calls for the rules governing handouts of billions of dollars to be rewritten. Lesotho's deputy prime minister Nthomeng Majara was among leaders to call for an "urgent" rescheduling or writing off debt.
World Bank halts Tunisia program over president's migrant remarks
World Bank halts Tunisia program over president's migrant remarks
Twitter suffers major outage disabling external links
Twitter on Monday suffered a major outage with users worldwide reporting they could no longer read links to articles from outside websites. During the outage, users trying to click into links were greeted with an error message saying "your API plan does not include access to this endpoint".
Czech inflatable weapon decoys a hit as Ukraine war rages
A Czech company producing inflatable weapon decoys, including Himars rocket launchers and Abrams tanks, said Monday it had seen a spike in demand since the Russian invasion of Ukraine started last year. Inflatech has so far rolled out "dozens" of fake Himars rocket launchers while the real weapon is wreaking havoc on Russian invaders in Ukraine.
Consumer groups disappointed as WhatsApp addresses EU concerns
Consumer organisations on Monday complained that WhatsApp's promises to be more transparent about privacy policy changes were insufficient, after the EU hailed commitments by the messaging service. The EU began talks with WhatsApp, owned by Facebook parent Meta, after a 2021 complaint by European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) about changes to its terms of use and privacy policy.
Matterhorn mountain melting away from Toblerone bars
Switzerland's famous Matterhorn mountain is gradually disappearing from Toblerone's packaging to comply with "Swissness" laws once its new plant in Slovakia opens, the world-famous chocolate brand's owners said Monday. But Toblerone is opening a new plant in Bratislava in the third quarter (Q3) of 2023 "to meet increased global demand", said the brand's owner, US food giant Mondelez International.
Proton VPN in media partnership against online censorship
Internet privacy and access company Proton said Monday it would provide German broadcaster Deutsche Welle with virtual private network (VPN) services aimed at helping skirt government censorship.
France flags 'anti-inflation quarter' for food prices
The French government said Monday that it had made a deal with major retailers to cap many food prices, in a bid to make inflationary pressures easier to bear for consumers. Le Maire also said the government would start testing a "food cheque" system for low-income families over the coming months. dga-cda/jh/lth
Accor co-founder, who brought France US-style hotels, dies at 91
Gerard Pelisson, who co-founded Accor and turned the hotel group into a world leader, has died at 91 after a long illness, his family told AFP on Monday. Pelisson created the Accor company together with business partner Paul Dubrule and grew it into the world's sixth-biggest hotel group with 5,400 hotels in 100 countries under the Novotel, Ibis, Sofitel, Mercure and Pullman brands.
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