Ottawa, Canada | AFP | Canada will impose a levy on internet giants such as Amazon, Google and Facebook similar to France’s digital services tax that created tensions with Washington, two ministers said Monday. “We’ve been very clear that we want to make sure that digital companies pay their fair …
Read More »Instagram to require birth dates in move to block underage use
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Instagram said Wednesday it would require new users to verify they are at least 13 when they join the visually focused, Facebook-owned social network. The move aims to help Instagram comply with a US law and its own policies that require any user to be at least 13. …
Read More »US urges countries to suspend digital taxes
Washington, United States | AFP | US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday urged countries like France to suspend taxes on global computing giants and wait for a negotiated agreement on international taxation. As the United States is poised to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on $2.4 billion …
Read More »Africa’s largest power dam stokes Nile River tensions
Paris, France | AFP | Ethiopia’s construction of a massive power dam on the Blue Nile is raising tensions with Egypt, which depends on the river for 90 percent of its water supply. As the neighbours and Sudan met in Cairo for talks Monday and Tuesday on the potential …
Read More »South African regulator orders data costs be reduced
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s competition regulatory authority on Monday revealed that mobile operators have been overcharging for internet connectivity, ordering top operators to drop prices within two months or face prosecution. The high cost of data has in the past stirred public outrage prompting protests under …
Read More »E-Commerce eats into Black Friday, now a shadow of its former self in US
‘Black Friday’ becoming a shadow of its former self in US New York, United States | AFP | The US holiday shopping season officially opened with a deluge of “Black Friday” promotions but the frenzied crowds of the past have thinned out with the rise of e-commerce. Companies in the …
Read More »Daimler to cut ‘thousands’ of jobs by 2022 to fund electric shift
Frankfurt am Main, Germany | AFP | Luxury automaker Daimler on Friday said it was scrapping “thousands” of jobs to help fund the switch to electric vehicles, in the latest layoffs to hit the stuttering German car industry. The Mercedes-Benz maker said it wanted to save 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 …
Read More »Swellings of mobile phone batteries spell danger for users
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Mobile phone users should constantly watch for symptoms of malfunctioning batteries to avoid explosion. Mobile phone technicians at Carl Care Service Center, which provides technical support for tecno phones at Prism Building in Uganda, say most phones they receive for repair present with serious electrical …
Read More »Online registration portal for health professionals launched
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ministry of Health has launched an online system for the renewal of annual practicing licenses for health professionals and health facilities in Uganda. The on-line portal www.ehealthlicense. go.ug has provisions where a doctor can upload copies of their documents and then get practicing licenses …
Read More »Hacker ‘breaks into’ Nile Breweries website, ‘demands formula’
Jinja, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT Nile Breweries Uganda Limited website has reportedly been hacked, with those responsible said to demand that the company produces a beer whose formula has been kept on its servers. The website currently displays a blurred picture of a man covering his head in a hoodie. …
Read More »