Bitcoin hit a fresh record above $71,000 on Monday as demand for the cryptocurrency picks up amid optimism that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this year. The unit hit a peak of $71,432 in afternoon Asian business, according to Bloomberg data, meaning it has advanced almost 70 percent this year. The rally was helped by news that Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority had said it would allow the creation of crypto-related securities. That comes […]
Other News
Kyoto seeks to guard geishas from tourist ‘paparazzi’
By Fred Mery KYOTO, Japan, March 11, 2024 (AFP) – Kyoto is cracking down after locals complained that Instagram-obsessed tourist “paparazzi” are harassing the Japanese city’s famous, immaculately dressed geisha. Real-life geisha, or “geiko” (“women of art”) as they are known locally, work for a living — as they have for centuries — in teahouses in Kyoto’s picturesque Gion district where they perform traditional Japanese dance, music and games. However, like other major tourist attractions […]
S. Korea starts process to suspend licences of 4,900 striking doctors
By Kang Jin-kyu SEOUL, March 11, 2024 (AFP) – South Korea said Monday it had started procedures to suspend the medical licences of 4,900 junior doctors who have resigned and stopped working to protest government medical training reforms, causing healthcare chaos. The walkout, which started February 20, is over government plans to sharply increase the number of doctors, which it says is essential to combat shortages and serve South Korea’s rapidly ageing population. Medics argue […]
13 hospitalised after ‘technical event’ on Auckland-bound flight
WELLINGTON, March 11, 2024 (AFP) – Thirteen passengers have been hospitalised after a LATAM flight from Sydney to Auckland experienced a “technical event” that caused serious turbulence Monday, the airline and first responders told AFP. Chile-based LATAM Airlines said flight LA800 “had a technical event during the flight which caused a strong movement. The plane landed at Auckland Airport as scheduled”. Gerard Campbell of St John Ambulance New Zealand said medics were alerted to an […]
Putin set for election coronation in vote with no opposition
MOSCOW, March 11, 2024 (AFP) – Vladimir Putin is set to secure another six-year term as Russian leader this weekend in a vote the Kremlin says will show society is fully behind his assault on Ukraine. In power as president or prime minister since the final day of 1999, Putin has quashed all forms of opposition and dissent, exerting a level of domestic control that ensures the result is in no doubt. Victory in the […]
Five cross-country skiers found dead in Switzerland: police
GENEVA, March 11, 2024 (AFP) – Five of six cross-country skiers who went missing in the Swiss Alps over the weekend have been found dead, police in the canton of Valais said Monday, with the search still on for the last person. The group of skiers, who ranged in age from 21 to 58, had left Zermatt Saturday morning with the goal of reaching the town of Arolla later that day. They went missing, […]
Australia cult leader faces new child abuse charges
SYDNEY, March 11, 2024 (AFP) – Australian police detained and charged on Monday a well-known cult leader known as “Little Pebble” for allegedly grooming a child while in jail. William Costellia Kamm, 73, and his partner Sandra Costellia, 58, were arrested after a six-month investigation, and were refused bail to appear in court on Tuesday. Costellia Kamm founded the “Order of Saint Charbel” in the rural town of Nowra in the 1980s and preached a […]
‘Sacred job’: Iraq Kurds digitise books to save threatened culture
By Khazan Jangiz Huddled in the back of a van, Rebin Pishtiwan carefully scans one yellowed page after another, as part of his mission to digitise historic Kurdish books at risk of disappearing. Seen as the world’s largest stateless people, the Kurds are an ethnic group of between 25 and 35 million mostly spread across modern day Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. In Iraq, the Kurds are a sizeable minority who have been persecuted, with […]
Proliferating ‘news’ sites spew AI-generated fake stories
By Bill McCarthy and Anuj Chopra WASHINGTON, March 11, 2024 (AFP) – A sensational story about the Israeli prime minister’s “psychiatrist” exploded online, but it was AI-generated, originating on one of hundreds of websites researchers warn are churning out tech-enabled fiction masquerading as news. Propaganda-spewing websites have typically relied on armies of writers, but generative artificial intelligence tools now offer a significantly cheaper and faster way to fabricate content that is often hard to decipher […]
Nolan’s masterpiece ‘Oppenheimer’ wins best picture Oscar
By Andrew MARSZAL HOLLYWOOD, United States, March 11, 2024 (AFP) – It is, in the words of its director, the story of the most important person who ever lived. And on Sunday, “Oppenheimer” completed its indomitable march towards Hollywood’s most important prize, winning the Academy Award for best picture. Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece — the story of the brilliant physicist who oversaw the invention of the atomic bomb, changing the world forever — is a grand, […]
How Haiti’s gangs grew into ‘Frankenstein’ monsters
By Aziz EL MASSASSI WASHINGTON, March 11, 2024 (AFP) – The latest violence in Haiti underscores the powerful sway of armed gangs, which have profited from collusion with the authorities, institutional negligence and political chaos since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021. The gangs sowing terror in the impoverished Caribbean island have morphed into de facto overlords. Now they are demanding the ouster of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, whose successor would have been […]
US staff, German ambassador evacuated as gang violence torments Haiti
PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 10, 2024 (AFP) – With Haiti’s capital spiraling deeper into gang violence, members of several diplomatic missions, including staff from the United States and the German ambassador, began leaving Port-au-Prince Sunday. Beleaguered residents were scrambling for safety following the latest spasm of unrest, with a UN group warning of a “city under siege” after armed attackers targeted the presidential palace and police headquarters. Criminal groups, which already control much of Port-au-Prince as well […]





