By Reuters Apple Inc. introduced its contactless payment service in South Africa on Tuesday, as the global tech giant looks to cash in on the mobile payments boom in the country. The use of digital finance and payments systems has surged in South Africa and elsewhere as the coronavirus crisis has prompted a shift towards…
By Reuters Google’s Maps app will start directing drivers along routes estimated to generate the lowest carbon emissions based on traffic, slopes and other factors, the company announced on Tuesday. Google, an Alphabet Inc unit, said the feature would launch later this year in the U.S. and eventually reach other countries as part of its commitment…
By Jerry Omondi Kenya’s leading mobile network operator, Safaricom, is scheduled to unveil the country’s first fifth-generation (5G) mobile internet service on Friday. The 5G technology will be supplied by Huawei and Nokia. The unveiling of the 5G by Safaricom will make it the first in the region to roll out the service for commercial…
By AFP Scientists have identified Earth’s smallest known reptile, warning at the same time that sustained destruction of forests in northern Madagascar threatens its survival. Tiny enough to perch comfortably on a fingertip, the ultra-compact chameleon — dubbed Brookesia nana — has the same proportions and world-weary expression as its larger cousins around the world. “We…
By AFP Conservationists have started using satellite imagery to count elephants from space, a technique that British experts hope will help protect threatened populations in Africa. Researchers at the University of Oxford and the University of Bath said the use of algorithms, machine learning and satellite technology could replace current techniques used to count elephants — a…
By XINHUA The United Nations will partner with Kenya to study the East Africa nation’s rising water levels in lakes, a UN official said on Wednesday. Walid Badawi, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) resident representative in Kenya, said in Nairobi that Lakes Baringo, Naivasha and parts of Lake Victoria have in recent times experienced a dangerous…
Britain on Tuesday began the biggest vaccination program in the country’s history, with a 90-year-old grandmother becoming the first person to receive the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Pfizer-BioNTech. The historic inoculation was given to Margaret Keenan at a hospital in Coventry, central England. “I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against COVID-19,”…
A Tanzanian government senior official has commended Huawei’s “Seeds for the Future” program, saying the program is improving the quality of ICT education for university students in the East African nation. Jim Yonazi, the deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communications, said on Monday that Huawei’s “Seeds for the Future” program…
The construction of Uganda’s Karuma Hydro Power Plant has entered the finishing stage despite what seemed to be insurmountable challenges complicated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Deng Changyi, project manager of Sinohydro Corporation Ltd., the construction contractor, told Xinhua in a recent visit that works at the power plant reaches about 98 percent completion. When…
Pneumonia kills around 143,000 children under the age of five each year in Nigeria, the government said, with the coronavirus pandemic hampering access to life-saving treatment. Medical oxygen coupled with antibiotics can help cut the number of deaths – but the pandemic has seen a surge in demand, according to UNICEF, making shortages even more…
