There are many examples of this. Kenya is using blockchain-enabled AI solutions for the unbanked to secure loans
Support is growing in the European Parliament against Swiss banks’ role in money laundering
Global cooperation is essential if climate action is to be effective, amid the right-wing onslaught against multilateralism
Theresa May’s resilience has been remarkable. But it is also finite
The ballot, in which 13 million people are eligible to vote, will be widely watched abroad as a bellwether for European Parliament elections in May
With less than six weeks until Brexit day, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has agreed to meet May once again
Backing the draft were traditional media, in urgent search of income at a time when web users shun newspapers and television
Legislators call for a €200-billion-a-year financial transactions tax to be levied on banks to discourage speculative trading.
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/ 10 September 2009
The European Parliament agreed on Thursday to vote next week on José Manuel Barroso’s bid for a second term as European Commission president.
European leaders pledged to steer the region through economic crisis after centre-right parties tightened their grip on the European Parliament.
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France said on Thursday that there had been no need for Ireland to vote on the European Union’s major reform package.
Some people simply lack a sense of occasion. It gets worse when these are public representatives. There was Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder smiling to the cameras this week. Feeling good about himself that he had got ”his people” the attention of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation whom he hoped would extend recognition to the Afrikaners.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon flew to Burma on Thursday to press the ruling generals to allow a full-blown international aid effort for 2,4-million people left destitute by Cyclone Nargis. The government’s official toll is 77 738 people killed and 55 917 missing, and it also estimates the damage to the economy at -billion.
The worst of the financial-sector crisis is over, although the impact on the broader economy will likely drag on in coming months, International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Thursday. "There are good reasons to believe that the largest part of disclosure in financial institutions has been done," he said.
North Koreans waved flags, plastic flowers and danced in the streets of Pyongyang to welcome the Olympic torch on Monday after the destitute state had promised its main benefactor China an ”astonishing” show. The global torch relay ahead of the Beijing Games in August has prompted protests against China’s rights record in Tibet.
The European Union launched the second and final test satellite for its ,3-billion rival to the United States Global Positioning System on Sunday, brushing off industry doubts over its viability. The Galileo project, Europe’s biggest single space programme, has been plagued by delays and squabbling over funding.
A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of mourners in northern Iraq on Thursday, killing at least 50 people, a police officer said. The man detonated an explosives vest in the crowd in the Sunni Arab village of Bu Mohammed, 120km south of the oil city of Kirkuk, at about 11am local time, Captain Abdullah Jassim said.
South Africa will not interfere with a shipment of weapons aboard a Chinese ship that is destined for Zimbabwe, government communications head Themba Maseko said on Thursday. All South African authorities can do is to make sure that ”all proper administrative processes” are followed.
Argentine police mobilised on Friday to guard the Olympic torch through Buenos Aires, bracing for protests against the human rights record of Olympic Games host China. The torch arrived in Argentina on Thursday to little fanfare. It will be carried past the country’s pink presidential palace and along the city’s broad avenues.
The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Friday became the first world leader to decide not to attend the Olympics in Beijing. As pressure built for concerted Western protests to China over the crackdown in Tibet, European Union leaders prepared to discuss the crisis for the first time on Saturday, amid a rift over whether to boycott the Olympics.
China’s crackdown on protests in Tibet has left at least 135 people dead, 1 000 injured and 400 arrested, the head of the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile said in Brussels on Wednesday. ”Information from Tibet is very difficult to get, but we have sources who are very reliable, who phone us at the risk of their lives,” parliamentary speaker Karma Chophel said.
Egypt’s High Court on Monday rejected the latest bid by jailed opposition leader Ayman Nur to be released on medical grounds, his lawyer said, adding that he would now seek a presidential pardon. The court was due to release details of its verdict against the one-time pro-democracy darling of the West later.
Northern Ireland’s largest Protestant party scrambled on Wednesday to secure a seamless transfer of power after its firebrand leader, Ian Paisley, announced his departure, drawing tributes from all sides. Paisley said on Tuesday he would step down as Democratic Unionist Party head in May.
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/ 22 February 2008
POINT: The Olympic Games have their anthem, their rings, their heroes and their sponsors. And now, with the Beijing 2008 Games, they have their prisoners. The Chinese government is not just building fine stadiums, it is also arresting those who dare to condemn the countless human rights violations taking place in China.
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/ 20 February 2008
Tony Blair’s hopes of becoming Europe’s first president are running into mounting opposition across the European Union, with Germany determined to stymie the former prime minister. ”There was surprise in Berlin when Blair’s name came up so soon,” said a European ambassador.
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/ 2 February 2008
Chinese state security forces have arrested one of the country’s most prominent civil rights activists in an apparent crackdown on dissent ahead of the Olympics. Hu Jia — who used blogs, webcasts and video to expose human rights abuses — is expected to face charges of inciting subversion of state power, his lawyers said on Saturday.
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/ 23 January 2008
The European Union’s executive adopted landmark proposals on Wednesday that will make the 27-nation bloc a world leader in the fight against climate change, but trade-offs will include higher energy bills. The European Commission approved detailed plans to cut planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions by one-fifth and set each EU state individual targets.
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/ 22 January 2008
Internet protocol (IP) addresses, a string of numbers that identifies a computer, should generally be regarded as personal information, the head of the European Union’s group of data privacy regulators said on Monday. Google insists an IP address merely identifies the location of a computer, not who the individual user is.
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/ 20 January 2008
Kenya’s opposition party, determined to bring down the government of President Mwai Kibaki, has called for another day of ”peaceful rallies” across Kenya in defiance of a ban and despite the deaths of more than 20 people in this week’s demonstrations.
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/ 20 January 2008
The Dutch government is bracing itself for violent protests following the scheduled broadcast this week of a provocative anti-Muslim film by a radical right-wing politician who has threatened to broadcast images of the Qur’an being torn up and otherwise desecrated.
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/ 17 January 2008
Kenyan police clashed with opposition members on Thursday in a second day of unrest over President Mwai Kibaki’s disputed re-election, and the opposition said police had killed seven. In opposition strongholds in the capital, Nairobi, and the western town of Kisumu, police fired tear gas and live bullets and struck at least two people.