Author: Worldman

Mastercard has launched a new digital marketplace for East African farmers to sell their crops and receive payment via their mobile telephones. “2Kuze” (pronounced “tuh-KOO-zay”) works with existing mobile money systems like mPesa to facilitate transactions between farmers, agents and banks, the financial-services corporation said. The World Bank’s Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) …

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Four of the five Pakistani rights campaigners and bloggers, who mysteriously disappeared from several cities earlier this month, have returned home. Police, relatives and sources confirmed Saturday that noted rights defender Salman Haider rejoined his family. “He is fine and safe,” said family members who refused to offer further comments on his whereabouts and the …

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Several people have been detained at airports within the United States and others have been barred from boarding international flights destined for the U.S., according to U.S.-based lawyers and international airport officials, as an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Friday restricting travel from certain countries begins to take hold. The executive order …

Read more “Effects of Trump Immigration Order Being Felt at International Airports”

Plans to reintroduce tigers to Central Asia, using the Amur tiger from Russia, have been a topic of discussion for about a decade. But the idea got a scientific boost earlier this month when a study laid out the options for restoring tigers to the region and identified a “promising site” in Kazakhstan that could …

Read more “Conservationists Eye Kazakhstan To Give Tiger Second Chance”

The changes announced recently by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev are themselves not very significant but the fact there are changes is important. Nazarbaev turns 77 this year and his speech was about a transition and a reminder the post-Nazarbaev era might not be too much further in the future. (The views expressed in this blog …

Read more “Majlis Podcast: Transition And Succession In Kazakhstan”

As its self-styled “caliphate” crumbles, militants from the group Islamic State (IS) are being driven out of areas of Iraq and Syria by local and international fighting forces. What they leave behind is a trail of crude weapons and evidence of the human misery they inflicted. …

Who are the federal government’s rogue tweeters, using official agency social media accounts to poke President Donald Trump? Are these acts of civil disobedience or federal crimes? The online campaign began with unauthorized tweets — on subjects such as climate change, and inconsistent with Trump’s campaign statements and policies — that have been mostly deleted …

Read more “Rogue Tweeters in Government Could Face Prosecution”

President Donald Trump has threatened to impose taxes, called tariffs, on goods imported to the United States from Mexico and China. Governments impose tariffs on imported goods and services to make them more expensive to consumers. Tariffs provide revenue to the government and give a price advantage to domestic producers. A tariff could mean a …

Read more “Tariffs Help Domestic Producers but Can Hurt Consumers”

Indonesia has quietly released a presidential decree addressing its roughly 14,000 refugees and asylum seekers, who were previously overlooked in the country’s laws. It is being hailed as a promising, if incomplete, first step for Indonesia, which is not a signatory to the United Nations’ 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. “The decree …

Read more “Indonesia Breaks Silence on Refugees With Presidential Decree”

Russian media reports say a former leader of Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine’s Luhansk region has died in Russia at the age of 46. …

U.S. President Donald Trump has praised the British government’s moves toward leaving the European Union, saying that his efforts as a businessman to deal with Europe were a “very bad experience.” …

British Prime Minister Theresa May says U.S. President Donald Trump stands fully behind NATO, an alliance whose usefulness he has previously questioned. …

British Prime Minister Theresa May meets with U.S. President Donald Trump Friday at the White House, where the two world leaders will hold a joint news conference. She will be the first foreign leader to meet with Trump in Washington since he took office. Both leaders have taken steps to reform their international relations, particularly …

Read more “Trump, May to Meet at White House, Trade to be Key Topic”

Greece’s Supreme Court has rejected a request from Turkey for the extradition of eight senior servicemen who fled the country following the failed coup last July.  The eight Turkish servicemen, three majors, three captains and two sergeant majors, escaped Turkey in a helicopter July 16, the day after the failed coup. They landed in northern …

Read more “Greece Refuses Turkish Extradition for 8 Accused in Coup Attempt”

Greece’s Supreme Court rejected a request from Turkey for the extradition of eight senior servicemen who fled the country following the failed coup last July. As Henry Ridgwell reports, Ankara has reacted with fury, and there are fears that ties between the two neighbors could be severely affected. …

U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has assured his German and French counterparts that the United States has an “enduring commitment” to NATO, the Pentagon said. …

Britain’s top diplomat says the West may have to rethink its long-standing demand that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad step down as part of any peace deal ending Syria’s civil war. …