Author: Peace Salifu

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has rejected a proposed law requiring social media users to register their real names and phone numbers, citing threats to free speech and privacy, his spokesman said Friday.

The legislation which was approved by both houses of Congress in February, is intended to combat fake news, online abuse, text scams and militant bombings, also required mobile phone users to provide their personal details when buying SIM cards.

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While supporting efforts to tackle cybercrime and other online offences, Duterte said he opposed the inclusion of social media user registration in the bill.

He called for “a more thorough study” of the provision, citing concerns it could lead to “dangerous state intrusion and surveillance threatening many constitutionally protected rights” such as individual privacy and free speech, presidential spokesman Martin Andanar said in a statement.

Filipinos rank among the world’s heaviest users of social media, But the country has become a key battleground for misleading or fake news.

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Author: Peace Salifu, Abuja

Nearly 3.9 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion a month ago, UN figures showed Monday, with the flow continuing to slow.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said 3,862,797 Ukrainians had fled the country, an increase of 41,748 from Sunday’s figures.

Around 90 percent of them are women and children, it added.

Of those who have left, 2.2 million have fled for neighbouring Poland, while more than half a million have made it to Romania. Nearly 300,000 have gone to Russia.

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Before the crisis began a month ago, EU member Poland was home to around 1.5 million Ukrainians.

In total, more than 10 million people, over a quarter of the population in regions under government control before the February 24 invasion, are now thought to have fled their homes, including nearly 6.5 million who are internally displaced.

Ukraine’s refugee crisis is Europe’s worst since World War II.

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Author: Peace Salifu, Abuja

Two International mining companies have settled their long-running dispute with Pakistan in a deal that officials said will revive work on developing one of the world’s largest gold and copper deposits in the South Asia nation.

Canada-based Barrick Gold corp. and Chile’s Antofagasta had suspended work on the Reko diq mine in the impoverished southwestern Balochistan province in 2011 after Pakistan refused to grant them a license to develop the project, leading to a decade long legal battle.

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Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s office said in a statement that under the new agreement signed with Barrick on Sunday, the nearly 11 billion dollars’ penalty meted against Pakistan by a World bank arbitration court would be waived.

Barrick will invest nearly 10 billion dollars in Balochistan which will create more than 8,000 jobs.

It added that about 1 billion dollars of the investment would go into building roads, schools, hospitals and the creation of technical training institutes for mining in the sparsely populated Pakistani region.

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