ျပည္ပအိမ္ၿခံေျမသတင္းမ်ား

Just before the November election The Danish Embassy’s TechPlomacy (technological-diplomacy) initiative provided six Myanmar based groups with pilot funding for fact checking. The country faces challenges around disinformation, misinformation, hate speech as well as lack of news and digital literacy skills amid a boom in online access and social media platforms. On top of that most media outlets in Myanmar do not fact-check regularly and today there are only six locally based fact-checking organizations in the country, while other fact checkers such as civil society groups are found outside news circles. Though the TechPlomacy-initiative launched in Denmark in 2017, Denmark became...

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5 provinces in Thailand are in total lockdown, with travel restrictions barring anyone from leaving or entering, unless absolutely necessary. The provinces affected by the tough new measures are the eastern provinces of Chon Buri, Rayong, Chanthaburi and Trat, as well as the central province of Samut Sakhon, where Thailand’s Covid-19 resurgence originated last month. Thai PBS World reports that Deputy Public Health Minister Satit Pitutacha has praised PM Prayut Chan-o-cha and the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration for agreeing to the lockdown, which has been implemented as a result of escalating infection rates in the provinces. He says it’s hoped the measures will...

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Based on a report from securities company VNDirect, interest rates for home loans would remain low next year in hopes to stimulate real estate demand, along with the increase in supply and macro-economic recovery that would encourage development in the housing market, reported Việt Nam News. The State Bank of Việt Nam (SBV) has cut rates in March, May, and October since the COVID-19 outbreak in January to facilitate people’s interest expenses, ease banks’ provision costs, and allow lenders to launch stimulus packages, with the aim of assisting economic recovery. As stated by the deputy head of investment analysis at VNDirect Trần Khánh Hiền, the rate for home...

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Hold your phone to your face for about a minute and it would be able to tell your heart rate, oxygen saturation, respiration rate and stress level with medical grade accuracy. That is what Singapore health startup Nervotec is promising with its application, which detects a user’s vital signs by studying the way light reflects off a user’s face changes as blood flows through the capillaries under the skin. The mobile application, which works on almost any smartphone with a front-facing camera, then feeds the data through an artificial intelligence engine to calculate an overall health score, which the app presents together with the individual readings for the user’s vital...

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Roy Fox hasn’t paid rent for his New York City apartment in more than 30 years. But he’s not sweating an eviction. In a city of 8.4 million people, Fox, 81, is one of just 23 lucky New Yorkers who reside in one of the city’s publicly owned historic sites spread across the five boroughs. After working as a radio host in cities from his native Chicago to Detroit and Pittsburgh, Fox, a gregarious rascal brimming with well-worn one-liners, happened upon an offer he couldn’t refuse: a chance to live rent-free in the King Manor House, an 11-acre historic landmark in Jamaica, Queens. The only catch? Serving as its caretaker. He never signed a contract or agreed to any...

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  A Portuguese health worker has died two days after getting the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. Sonia Acevedo, 41, suffered a 'sudden death' at home on New Year's Day 48 hours after receiving the jab. An autopsy is expected to take place later today or tomorrow. The mother-of-two, who worked in paediatrics at the Portuguese Institute of Oncology in Porto, is not said to have suffered any adverse side-effects after being vaccinated. Ms Acevedo's father Abilio Acevedo told Portuguese daily Correio da Manha: 'She was okay. She hadn't had any health problems.'She had the Covid-19 vaccine but she didn't have any symptoms. I don't know what happened. I just want answers. 'I want to know...

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Chinese billionaire and founder of the Alibaba Group, Jack Ma, has been reported as missing after he openly criticised China’s regulators and its state-owned banks, accusing them of slowing down innovation. Jack Ma has not been spotted in public for the last two months and was also missing from the finale episode of his own talent show titled Africa’s Business Heroes. Concerns rose after the businessman delivered a controversial speech in Shanghai on October 24 in which he called the Chinese banking rules and process to be similar to that of an "old people's club". "Today’s financial system is the legacy of the Industrial Age," he said in his speech. "We must set up a...

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While the year just gone may be referred to as 2020 by most of us (with perhaps a few expletives thrown in, given the year it was), we are currently in the year 2563 in Thailand. As everyone who lives here knows, Thailand uses the Buddhist calendar, as well as the Western, or Gregorian, calendar, adding to our eternal confusion when wading through Thai documentation. While the Gregorian calendar, also sometimes called the Christian calendar, is based around the birth of Jesus, the Buddhist one begins with the birth of Buddha, currently 2563 years ago. However, as can be seen below, the date in Thailand is usually written by combining the Gregorian date and month with the Buddhist year. The...

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A man from Vinh Long Province, who illegally entered Vietnam and was diagnosed with Covid-19, reportedly paid VND50 million ($2,155) to a people smuggling gang to return home. The 32-year-old, one of six people who illegally entered from Cambodia through An Giang Province on December 24, tested positive for the coronavirus two days later, but had been "anxious and worried the gang would hurt his family if he revealed its operations to local authorities," his mother Tran Thi Hang said via phone from a quarantine facility in Mang Thit District. Ignoring all fears, Hang advised her son to clearly declare his travel history to local authorities so that they prevent risk of further Covid-19...

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  The World Health Organisation has granted “emergency validation” for the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, allowing countries across the globe to now approve its import and distribution for their citizens. In a statement released on the final day of 2020, the WHO said its validation, the first since the start of the pandemic, “opens the door for countries to expedite their own regulatory approval processes to import and administer the vaccine”. The UK has already launched its inoculation drive with the new vaccine since December 8, with the US, Canada and EU following suit. “This is a very positive step towards ensuring global access to Covid-19...

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