Section: Independent Online (South Africa)
Facebook dismantles covert influence campaign tied to Saudis
London – People connected to the government of Saudi Arabia have run a network of fake accounts and pages on Facebook to promote state propaganda and attack regional rivals, the social media giant said on Thursday. Facebook said it had suspended more than 350 accounts and pages with about 1.4 million followers, the latest takedown in an...
WATCH: Merkel has third bout of shaking, says she’s ‘working through’ issue
BERLIN – German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was “working through” a bout of shaking that first occurred in mid-June and struck for the third time on Wednesday, though she insisted she was fine and that “just as it happened one day, so it will disappear”. Earlier, Merkel shook back and forth as she stood outside...
Rock star vows to bring ‘real change’ to Ukraine after launching party
Kiev – Standing on stage in a black t-shirt, Ukrainian rock star Sviatoslav Vakarchuk turns to his massed ranks of fans and asks if they are fed up about how their country is run. “How many of us want real change … How many of us are tired of old politics?”, he shouts out, holding his microphone in the air as the crowd...
Don’t meddle in election, a smirking Trump tells Putin at G20
Osaka – US President Donald Trump, upon the prodding of journalists, turned to Russian President Vladimir Putin, wagged a finger and with a smirk on his face told his counterpart not to meddle in elections. “Of course,” Trump said, when asked by journalists at the G20 summit in Osaka on Friday if he would warn Putin. He then...
Online voting opens for Andrei Stenin International Photo Contest
Moscow – The 2019 Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest launched online voting on the stenincontest.com website on Thursday, allowing Internet users to pick their favourite entry. The online vote for the contest’s best photo will be open until July 31, 11:59 pm Moscow time [20:00 GMT]. Anyone who has an account on...
South Africa on alert for Ebola risk
Johannesburg – Although South Africa has not yet put in place travel restrictions to Uganda or Kenya following a recent Ebola scare, authorities say they remain on high alert. This month, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) issued an alert saying the risk of Ebola spreading to South Africa from the Democratic Republic of...
How scammers used silicone mask to steal millions from world leaders
Paris – French investigators are probing whether a conman who became known as the “Fake Chairman” for scamming banks out of millions of dollars by posing as a top-ranking executive gave himself a promotion – to government minister. Gilbert Chikli, a 53-year-old French-Israeli citizen, is at the centre of an investigation...
Dutch PM slams Malaysian PM over ‘confusing’ MH17 comment
Brussels, Belgium – Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Thursday slammed his Malaysian counterpart for creating “confusion” by criticising a decision to charge four people over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Mahathir Mohamad had called the move by Dutch-led investigators to charge three Russians and a Ukrainian...
Investigators in MH17 downing charge suspects linked to Russian intelligence
Moscow – The Dutch-led investigation into the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine in 2014 named its first suspects on Wednesday – among them three Russian nationals close to Moscow’s intelligence services. Investigators have long suspected a missile from Ukraine’s battle zones was responsible for bringing...
Former Trump aide Manafort moved to jail which once held El Chapo
President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been moved from a minimum security prison near Scranton, Pennsylvania, to the federal correction center in Manhattan that recently housed the notorious Mexican drug lord known as “El Chapo,” federal records show. The move to the Metropolitan Correctional Center...
