TECH NEWS

Washington, United States | AFP |  A scathing US Congressional report released Thursday branded intelligence leaker Edward Snowden a “serial exaggerator and fabricator” and said he has had continual contact with Russian intelligence services. The partially redacted report, released by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, portrays Snowden as …

Ottawa, Canada | AFP |  Canada’s telecommunications regulator on Wednesday declared access to high-speed internet an essential service that must be available to all, including rural and remote areas of the world’s second-largest nation by land mass. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) said a new Can$750 million fund …

Chicago, United States | AFP | The families of three Orlando nightclub shooting victims have filed suit against Facebook, Twitter and Google accusing them of providing “material support” to the Islamic State group by allowing the spread of extremist propaganda that inspired the attack. The assault by gunman Omar Mateen, …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Volkswagen on Wednesday opened a new assembly plant in Kenya and launched plans for a ride-sharing service in Rwanda as it seeks to take advantage of surging car demand in Africa. The German car manufacturer’s move into East Africa comes just weeks after it signed …

Soroti, Uganda | AFP | When power goes out in the rural town of Soroti in eastern Uganda, store manager Hussein Samsudin can only hope it won’t go on so long it spoils his fresh goods. Another shop owner, Richard Otekat, 37, has to pay a neighbour hourly to use …

Here comes the Sun — and it will cost you, says Portugal Lisbon, Portugal | AFP |  Property? It’s location, location, location, as any real estate vendor — and the Portuguese taxman — will tell you. Under fiercely-contested fiscal changes which became law on Monday, people buying a home in …

The Christmas season is the deadliest on Ugandan roads according to Annual Crime and Traffic/ Road Safety Reports. In 2013, for example, 283 fatal accidents happened during December; compared to say 198 in January. The report noted that the month of December ranked highest for total number of collisions and …

Brussels, Belgium | AFP |  The EU charged Facebook on Tuesday with providing “misleading” information when it sought approval for its blockbuster $22-billon buyout of the WhatsApp mobile messaging service. The commission said the EU’s greenlight of the buyout, announced in October 2014, was not put back into question but …

 What key areas does your work portfolio focus on? When the Telecom duopoly was de-regularised in 2006, we were the first company to get a licence. We started the business as wholesalers of voice and data under the capacity re-sell licence. We spent the first three years doing only that. …

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania | AFP |  Tanzanian authorities on Friday charged the editor of a whistle-blowing website for failing to reveal the identity of contributors to the site, court documents revealed. Maxence Melo, who co-founded the website Jamii Forums, was charged with operating a website without a local domain, …