Dozens of Tunisians demonstrated Sunday to demand the right to eat and drink in public during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and to protest against non-fasters being arrested. There is no law against eating or drinking in public during Ramadan, but every year the issue comes to the fore in the North African country. … Read more
Despite defeats in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State group has reorganized and is now “more focused than ever” on attacking Europe and other areas outside that conflict zone, a senior UN official said Thursday. “ISIL, despite continuous military pressure, continues to resist, particularly in Mosul and Raqa,” said UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey … Read more
The water might be chilly but dozens of naked men happily relax in an outdoor pool in a Beijing suburb making the most of the sunshine. “This is a paradise for Chinese nudists,” says 18-year-old Zhen, displaying a tiger tattoo on his chest. The small pond next to a high-voltage power line and shabby brick … Read more
Western diplomats in Rwanda voiced their concern on Tuesday over an order that presidential candidates must submit their social media messages to the country’s election commission for pre-approval before dissemination. “We are all concerned about this recent development and I think it is important to really understand what is behind this very, very serious limitation … Read more
There will be no spur of the moment Twitter rants by Rwanda’s presidential candidates, as the election commission has ruled that it must pre-approve all of their social media updates. “We are asking (candidates) to present us their messages, their drafts to verify that they are not against the law,” electoral commission head Kalisa Mbanda … Read more
The holy Muslim month of Ramadan began Saturday with a bitter taste for residents of Libya’s capital, as a cash shortage bites, prices rise and deadly clashes returned to Tripoli. Dawn queues outside banks just to withdraw a few tens of dinars has become routine for most Libyans, whose chaos-plagued North African country faces a … Read more
Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg says he is not running for public office but is making a series of public appearances “to learn about people’s hopes and challenges.” The co-founder of the world’s biggest social network sought to dampen speculation he is running for president, fueled by his campaign-style appearances around the United States. “My personal … Read more
Augmented reality is seeing strong gains among Americans thanks to social networks like Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook, a market research firm said Monday. A new report by eMarketer said some 40 million Americans will engage with augmented reality monthly in 2017, up 30 percent over last year. Virtual reality is also growing, but at a … Read more
For months in the Lemay home, the same phrase was repeated over and over by their troubled young child, barely more than a toddler, who showed growing signs of depression. “It is a mistake. I am not a girl, I am a boy.” That convinced the Lemay family that Mia should become Jacob. Mimi and … Read more
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s official website has been hit by an “organised” cyber-attack from Russia, his administration has said. It said it was Russia’s response to Mr Poroshenko’s decree banning some of Russia’s biggest social media networks and net services popular in Ukraine. Kiev provided no evidence of Russia’s involvement in the attack. There was … Read more
Some of the posts on Social media connoted sarcasm On Mother’s Day Sunday, Ghanaians on social media shared memories of their mothers and while some of the posts were downright emotional, there was a lot of room for sarcasm. Below are some of the posts people put up on some social media sites. Join GhanaStar.com … Read more
One week after Jimmy Kimmel’s impassioned words about his newborn son’s health crisis and the country’s health care system, the late night host returned Monday night with more to say. “One week ago tonight, I made an emotional speech that was seen by millions, and as a result of my powerful words on that night, … Read more
Researchers on Monday urged tougher laws to protect victims of “revenge porn” in Australia after a survey revealed abuses, including shooting and sharing intimate images without permission, on a “mass scale”. One in five Australians have fallen prey to abusive behaviour, including having intimate photographs taken without consent and then confronting threats to share them … Read more
Strict election rules are now in place ahead of Sunday’s vote French President François Hollande has promised to “respond” after a hacking attack targeted presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron. He gave no further details but said he knew of the risks of such attacks because they had “happened elsewhere”. The French media and public have been … Read more
The emergence of social media has created a safe platform for all manner of social deviants to pull a fast one on others. Facebook, for instance, is a social network where people with different beliefs, values, morals and ethics connect with each other. So called ”malams” and other spiritualists have also taken undue advantage of … Read more
The Australian has obtained confidential internal documents from Facebook that supposedly show how it’s possible for the company to take advantage of teenagers’ insecurities to benefit advertisers. The leaked document was written by two Australian Facebook execs and included how monitoring users’ posts, comments and interactions could help figure out when people felt “defeated”, “overwhelmed”, … Read more
Facebook on Wednesday reported its quarterly profit jumped just over $3 billion as its ranks of monthly users closed in on two billion. The leading social network said it made a profit of $3.06 billion on $8.03 billion in revenue in the first three months of this year, posting increases of 76 percent and 49 … Read more
A so-called suicide game that’s allegedly targeting teens in Russia may now be finding its way around the globe, specifically in the U. K. and Brazil, according to various reports. Though it may be an urban legend, the Blue Whale has been reported by many outlets to be a social media game that has “curators” … Read more
Yik Yak, a mobile application which gained popularity for allowing users to make anonymous comments and which sparked debate on cyber bullying, has shut down. The app launched in 2013 and gained a following among high school and college students, pushing its valuation by investors to an estimated $400 million at one point, according to … Read more
Social media firms are “shamefully far” from tackling illegal and dangerous content, says a parliamentary report. Hate speech, terror recruitment videos and sexual images of children all took too long to be removed, said the Home Affairs Select Committee report. The government should consider making the sites help pay to police content, it said. But … Read more