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Twitter to boot users who persist with Covid-19 lies
San Francisco (AFP) - Twitter said Monday it will start labeling misleading tweets about Covid-19 vaccines and boot users who persist in spreading such misinformation. The one-to-many messaging service introduced a "strike system" that will gradually escalate to a permanent ban after the fifth offending tweet. "We believe the strike system will help to educate the public on our policies and further reduce the spread of potentially harmful and misleading information on Twitter," the San Francisco-based company said in a blog post. "Particularly for repeated moderate and high-severity violations...
AFP
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Amazon accused of race-gender bias in workplace
Washington (AFP) - A lawsuit filed in US federal court on Monday accused Amazon of keeping women and Black employees down while publicly talking up the need for diversity and social justice. Charlotte Newman, who is Black and heads Underrepresented Founder Startup Business Development at Amazon Web Services, said in the suit she has been harassed, sexually assaulted, and kept from advancing to positions she deserved in the corporation. "Like so many other Black and female employees at Amazon, Charlotte Newman was confronted with a systemic pattern of insurmountable discrimination based upon th...
AFP
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US father and son handed to Japan over Ghosn's escape
Washington (AFP) - An American father and son were handed to Japanese officials on Monday, their lawyer said, after losing an extradition battle over accusations they helped former Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn to flee Japan. Michael Taylor and his son Peter Taylor were arrested in May after Japan issued a warrant accusing them of helping Ghosn flee Tokyo for Lebanon in December 2019 -- reportedly hidden in a large box in a private jet -- as he faced financial misconduct charges. Two weeks ago, the US Supreme Court rejected the Taylors' emergency appeal and cleared the way for their extradi...
AFP
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Boeing Starliner test flight postponed
Washington (AFP) - An unmanned test mission of Boeing's Starliner space capsule, which is eventually to transport astronauts to the International Space Station, has had to be postponed, NASA said Monday. The test, which had previously been postponed until early April, will suffer another delay, this time due to unprecedented cold temperatures in Texas that caused extensive power outages in the southern US state. "We did lose time with the weather in Houston. We lost about a week of time," said Steve Stich, the manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, during a press conference. NASA is "conti...
AFP
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Huawei exec's extradition fight enters final round in Canada
Vancouver (AFP) - Chinese Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou was back in a Canadian court Monday to fight a final round against extradition to the United States, her lawyers challenging the crux of the case -- that she allegedly hid business dealings in Iran. The daughter of Huawei founder and chief executive Ren Zhengfei faces charges in the United States of bank fraud and conspiracy over the commercial activities of a former Huawei subsidiary alleged to have violated US sanctions against Iran. Meng, 49, is accused of having lied to the HSBC investment bank about Huawei's relationship...
AFP
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US presses Saudis over Khashoggi killing amid calls to punish prince
Washington (AFP) - The United States on Monday pressed Saudi Arabia to take further measures after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi as Washington faced growing criticism that it did not directly target Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. President Joe Biden on Friday released an intelligence report that found that Prince Mohammed approved the 2018 killing of Khashoggi, a US-based contributor to The Washington Post who was lured into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul where he was strangled to death and dismembered. The report -- classified under former president Donald Trump, a close ally ...
AFP
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Immigration, Covid headline talks between Biden, Lopez Obrador
Washington (AFP) - President Joe Biden told his Mexican counterpart Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador that Mexico's success was crucial to the hemisphere and that he would view the US southern neighbor as an equal. In a virtual summit to discuss immigration, Covid-19 and commercial issues, Biden opened talks by reminding Lopez Obrador of his four visits to Mexico as vice president. "The United States and Mexico are stronger when we stand together," Biden said at the beginning of their teleconference. But "we haven't been perfect neighbors to each other." During the Obama-Biden administration, he con...
AFP
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2 Americans handed to Japan over Ghosn's escape
Washington (AFP) - An American father and son were handed to Japanese officials on Monday, their lawyer said, after losing an extradition battle over accusations they helped former Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn to flee Japan. Michael Taylor and his son Peter Taylor were arrested in May after Japan issued a warrant accusing them of helping Ghosn flee Tokyo for Lebanon in December 2019 -- reportedly hidden in a large box in a private jet -- as he faced financial charges in Japan. Two weeks ago, the US Supreme Court rejected the Taylors' emergency appeal and cleared the way for their extraditi...
AFP
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Novavax hopes to file for US vaccine approval in 2nd quarter of 2021
Washington (AFP) - US biotech company Novavax said Monday it hopes to file for British approval of its Covid-19 vaccine at the start of the second quarter of 2021, and to do the same soon after in the United States. The company has no assurance that US authorities will agree to consider the request, which currently is based on results from Phase 3 clinical trials led in the Britain. Similar trials are still ongoing in the United States. The data will hopefully be presented to the British health regulator (MHRA) "by early second quarter 2021," Novavax said in a statement, on the occasion of the...
AFP
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Huawei exec's extradition fight enters final round in Canada
Vancouver (AFP) - Chinese Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou was back in a Canadian court Monday to fight a final round against extradition to the United States, her lawyers challenging the crux of the case -- that she allegedly hid business dealings in Iran. The daughter of Huawei founder and chief executive Ren Zhengfei faces charges in the United States of bank fraud and conspiracy over the commercial activities of a former Huawei subsidiary alleged to have violated US sanctions against Iran. Meng is accused of having lied to the HSBC investment bank about Huawei's relationship with...
AFP
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