WORLD

[Obituary] Winnie Mandela: a radical anti-apartheid heroine, with a stained reputation

Hailed as mother of the ‘new’ South Africa, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s legacy as an anti-apartheid heroine was undone when she was revealed to be a ruthless ideologue prepared to sacrifice laws and lives in pursuit of revolution and redress. Her uncompromising methods and refusal to forgive contrasted sharply with the reconciliation espoused by her husband Nelson Mandela as he worked to ...

Read More »

Facebook ‘ugly truth’ growth memo haunts firm

A Facebook executive’s memo that claimed the “ugly truth” was that anything it did to grow was justified has been made public, embarrassing the company. The 2016 post said that this applied even if it meant people might die as a result of bullying or terrorism. Both the author and the company’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, have denied they actually ...

Read More »

‘More than half’ of UK households face broadband problems

One in five British households have experienced slow broadband speeds in the last year, according to Which. A similar number have had connection dropouts and router problems, the consumer rights group added. It polled more than 1,900 customers across 12 providers, more than half of whom reported having problems with their broadband service or price. Which said providers had “a ...

Read More »

Microsoft gambles on a quantum leap in computing

In a laboratory in Copenhagen, scientists believe they are on the verge of a breakthrough that could transform computing. A team combining Microsoft researchers and Niels Bohr Institute academics is confident that it has found the key to creating a quantum computer. If they are right, then Microsoft will leap to the front of a race that has a tremendous ...

Read More »

US may tie social media to visa applications

The Trump administration has said it wants to start collecting the social media history of nearly everyone seeking a visa to enter the US. The proposal, which comes from the state department, would require most visa applicants to give details of their Facebook and Twitter accounts. They would have to disclose all social media identities used in the past five ...

Read More »

South Africa’s Winnie Mandela dies at 81

South African anti-apartheid campaigner Winnie Mandela has died aged 81, her personal assistant says. Winnie Madikizela Mandela was the former wife of South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela. The couple – famously pictured hand-in-hand as Mr Mandela walked free from prison after 27 years – were a symbol of the anti-apartheid struggle for nearly three decades. However, in later ...

Read More »

Tesla rebuked by death crash investigators

Electric car-maker Tesla has been admonished by the US watchdog investigating a recent fatal crash involving one of its cars. The National Transportation Safety Board said it was “unhappy” the firm had made public details of the probe. The company had blogged on Friday that the Model X car involved’s Autopilot self-steering system was in use at the time of the accident. ...

Read More »

Egypt’s Sisi re-elected with 97% of votes cast, turnout at 41% (Official)

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been re-elected with 97 percent of votes, the exact proportion that brought the former military commander his first term four years ago, Egypt’s election commission announced on Monday. However, turnout in last week’s election was lower than in 2014, at 41 percent. Sisi had long been virtually guaranteed victory after all serious opposition pulled ...

Read More »