Author: CYPRUS EYE

Three people have been killed during violent protests after President Macky Sall’s decision to push back the February 25 vote plunged traditionally stable Senegal into one of its worst crises in decades. “We are deeply concerned about the tense situation in Senegal,” Liz Throssell, spokeswoman for the UN’s human rights office, told reporters in Geneva. “Following reports of unnecessary and disproportionate use of force against protesters and restrictions on civic space, we call on the authorities to ensure that they uphold Senegal’s long-held tradition of democracy and respect for human rights,” she added. Demonstrations are subject to authorisation in Senegal,…

Lawmakers in Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland have rejected a maritime access deal with Ethiopia. In a joint statement late on Tuesday, members of both houses of Somaliland’s parliament, mainly from the coastal Awdal and Salal provinces, said the Red Sea access deal was “illegal” and aims to “harm the unity of the people of Somaliland.” “We have rejected the deal and its implementation and we are calling the government to stop and retract the memorandum of understanding,” said the statement. The statement pointed to “conflicting statements” from leaders of Somaliland and Ethiopia on the deal, which allows Ethiopia to…

U.K. inflation held steady at 4% year-on-year in January on the back of easing prices for furniture and household goods, food and non-alcoholic beverages. Month-on-month, the headline consumer price index fell to -0.6%, returning to negative territory after December’s surprise increase by 0.4% on the month and 4% annually. Economists polled by Reuters had produced a consensus forecast of 4.2% year-on-year for January and -0.3% for the month. “The largest upward contribution to the monthly change in both CPIH and CPI annual rates came from housing and household services (principally higher gas and electricity charges), while the largest downward contribution came from…

Japan auctioned sovereign climate transition bonds on Wednesday, marking the first such case in the world, although the bonds were met with slightly weaker-than-expected demand. Climate transition bonds are a relatively new class of bonds that aim to fund shifts by companies, or in this case a government, to have a lesser impact on the environment. They are distinct from green bonds where the proceeds are earmarked for a specific project or are focused on the profile of the issuer. The sale of 800 billion yen ($5.3 billion) in 10-year transition bonds was the first in Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s…

State-backed hackers from Russia, China, and Iran have been using tools from Microsoft-backed OpenAI to hone their skills and trick their targets, according to a report published on Wednesday. Microsoft said in its report it had tracked hacking groups affiliated with Russian military intelligence, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, and the Chinese and North Korean governments as they tried to perfect their hacking campaigns using large language models. Those computer programs, often called artificial intelligence, draw on massive amounts of text to generate human-sounding responses. The company announced the find as it rolled out a blanket ban on state-backed hacking groups using…

The head of Europe’s Airbus has told staff that recent unexpected charges in its Space business are “not acceptable”, in a candid assessment of a business facing what he described as an internal crisis, people familiar with the matter said. In November, Airbus took a 300-million-euro ($320 million) charge on unidentified satellite programmes, said by industry sources to include the commercial telecoms OneSat family. CEO Guillaume Faury told staff in a January review of 2023 that Defence and Space “performed strongly in many areas, but faced a major setback in the Space business which tarnished the overall performance”, according to…

Spain and Ireland have formally requested that the European Commission urgently review its relationship with Israel, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday, amid Israel’s looming ground offensive in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. “The EU’s commitment to human rights and dignity can have no exceptions,” Sanchez posted on X, highlighting the “critical situation in Rafah.” The Irish Times and El Pais reported that Sanchez and Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar addressed a formal letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. In the letter, seen by the Spanish and Irish dailies, the leaders urge the commission to “undertake an…

Türkiye on Wednesday underlined its determination to increase its contacts with Egypt for peace and stability in the region. “We are determined to increase our contacts with Egypt at all levels to establish peace and stability in our region,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a joint news conference with his Egypt counterpart in Cairo. Underlining his invitation to Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to visit Türkiye, Erdogan said this visit will be a new turning point in bilateral relations. “Egypt is making significant investments in the defense sector. I believe that we will join forces with Egypt, develop joint projects,” Erdogan…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prevented his country’s delegation from returning to Egypt to attend a 4-day meeting for a proposed hostage swap deal with Hamas, according to local media on Wednesday. “Netanyahu did not allow the negotiating team to return to Egypt on Thursday to continue talks on a hostage deal,” Israeli Channel 12 reported. “Netanyahu believes that Hamas must accept the terms set by Israel for making progress,” the broadcaster said. Officials from Israel, Egypt, Qatar and the US held a meeting in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss a Gaza cease-fire and hostage-prisoner swap between Hamas and Israel.…

Ertuğruloğlu stated that, despite the agreement reached with the United Nations during the resumption of road construction in Pile, it was observed that the UN reached a separate agreement with the Greek Cypriot side independently. He emphasized, “Whether the hiatus in road construction is permanent or temporary depends on the future attitude of the UN.” Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus addressed the claims put forward by Politis Newspaper in an interview with KIBRIS. Minister Ertuğruloğlu stated that the Yiğitler-Pile road project, designed to resolve the problems faced by Turkish Cypriots living in Pile when…