Angolan president demands curbs on social media

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos called on Friday for a crackdown on social media, heightening concerns about the tolerance of dissent or political opposition in Africa's number two oil producer. In a surprise television address, dos Santos, who has run the former Portuguese colony since 1979, said websites such as Facebook were useful for disseminating information but were being abused to publish “derogatory and morally offensive content”

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Kaspersky security shakes up U.S. leadership amid geopolitical concerns

Top Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab has recently lost the leader of its North American operations and the head of a Washington-area office as it struggles to win U.S. government contracts amid rising geopolitical mistrust. Company Chief Executive Eugene Kaspersky confirmed the changes in an interview with Reuters during a visit to China

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Brazil court lifts suspension of Facebook’s WhatsApp service

By Jeb Blount and Marcelo Teixeira RIO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO (Reuters) – A Brazilian judge on Thursday ordered the lifting of a 48-hour suspension of the services in Brazil of Facebook Inc's WhatsApp phone-messaging application, overturning an order from a lower court. The interruption of WhatsApp's text message and Internet telephone service caused outrage in Latin America's largest country, where the company estimates it has 100 million personal users, and led to angry exchanges on the floor of Congress

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Freedom of speech reaches ‘new low’ in junta-ruled Thailand

By Amy Sawitta Lefevre BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand's military seized power last year with a promise to eventually restore democracy. On Sunday, a student was taken from hospital by plainclothes agents and charged with defaming Thailand's widely revered royalty.      On Monday, it emerged that a factory worker was charged with sedition and mocking King Bhumibol Adulyadej's dog.

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China calls for Internet front to fight hacking, cyber ‘arms race’

By Paul Carsten WUZHEN, China (Reuters) – China's President Xi Jinping laid out his vision for the Internet on Wednesday, calling for a new status quo where Internet sovereignty rests in the hands of nations controlling the flow of information. “Each country should join hands and together curb the abuse of information technology, oppose network surveillance and hacking, and fight against a cyberspace arms race,” Xi told China's second World Internet Conference. Since Xi took China's helm in early 2013, he has presided over a centralization of domestic Internet governance and broader efforts to control, and often censor, the flow of information online, experts say.

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‘Fintech’ expansion lures foreign banks to Israel

By Tova Cohen TEL AVIV (Reuters) – A five-minute chat with an executive from Israeli start-up MyCheck was enough to spark the interest of Mariano Belinky, managing partner at Banco Santander's venture capital division. After more formal follow-up meetings, the Spanish bank made its first foray into Israel, investing an undisclosed sum in MyCheck, which develops customized mobile payment apps for restaurant chains such as The Cheesecake Factory. With many clients in the hospitality sector, Santander was intrigued by the possibility of providing “a new and better solution for our clients,” Belinky told Reuters at a financial technology (fintech) event hosted by Santander in Tel Aviv last month.

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Australia banks agree Android Pay deal, Apple Pay still frozen out

By Swati Pandey SYDNEY (Reuters) – Big Australian banks have agreed to accept payments made on mobile devices using Google Inc's Android Pay, leaving Apple Inc's rival Apple Pay system out in the cold as the tech giant struggles to coax lenders to accept its terms. Banks including Westpac Banking Corp , ANZ Banking Group and Macquarie will accept contactless payments via Android smartphones when Google rolls out the service in first-half 2016, the tech giant said on Wednesday.

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