Month: September 2026

The chief executive of the company operating the Eiffel Tower will step down at the end of the year following a backlash over female staff being replaced by male colleagues during a visit by a Hindu religious group. Patrick Branco Ruivo, who has headed the landmark’s operator SETE since 2018, will leave his post after an internal investigation found “operational flaws and shortcomings” in organising the visit, the company said. About 100 people linked to the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) visited the Eiffel Tower earlier this month. SETE…

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Burkina Faso has opened its first gold refinery as the military-led government seeks to process more of the country’s mineral wealth domestically and increase state control over the sector. Junta leader Ibrahim Traoré said at the inauguration in Ouagadougou on Monday that the facility was part of efforts to end reliance on exporting raw materials for processing abroad and develop the entire value chain locally, according to a BBC report. The Raffinor-BF refinery cost more than 11 billion CFA francs ($19 million), according to the presidency, and will initially be…

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Chinese-powered AI agents have learnt to deceive, circumvent restrictions and conceal failure, showing the kind of traits in autonomous artificial intelligence that have raised global alarm about US models, research documents and experts say. In one case this year, agents powered by models from China’s Alibaba, DeepSeek and Moonshot lied about their capabilities in a bid to win a simulated business tender, then doubled down on their deceptive behaviour when told to try ​again. In another case, agents — programmes that use AI models and computer tools to undertake complex…

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Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Wednesday visited Jinnah International Airport in Karachi and inspected immigration counters, reviewing the process for passengers travelling abroad. Naqvi met departing passengers and asked about the immigration procedure and facilities. He also had the travel documents of some passengers verified by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials. Expressing satisfaction with the arrangements, Naqvi said the deployment of additional staff at immigration counters had eliminated long queues. He directed authorities to provide passengers with all possible facilities during immigration and ordered that those carrying incomplete or…

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Malaysia’s 101-year-old former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has been hospitalised for observation, his aide told AFP, following the death on Monday of his wife of seven decades. The two-time prime minister was admitted to the National Heart Institute in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday night, aide Sufi Yusoff said, though the reason for his hospitalisation was not immediately known pending an official diagnosis. Sufi said Mahathir had not been getting enough rest following the passing of his wife, Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, on Monday and was feeling fatigued. “He is in…

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Pakistan will face Bangladesh in the first semi-final of the Asian Games cricket competition in Japan on Thursday, after rain washed out the quarter-finals. The Pakistan-Hong Kong and India-Afghanistan quarter-finals were abandoned without a ball being bowled a day earlier, while Sri Lanka’s quarter-final against Nepal and Bangladesh’s clash with Malaysia were similarly called off due to rain. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh advanced to the semi-finals on the basis of their higher seeding. Pakistan will meet Bangladesh in the first semi-final at 5am Pakistan time on Thursday, while India will…

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US President Donald Trump has ordered the federal government to replace the terms “artificial intelligence” and “AI” with “super intelligence” and “SI” in official executive branch communications. Under an executive order signed on Tuesday, federal departments and agencies have been directed to use “super intelligence” and “SI” in official correspondence, public communications, policy documents and other non-statutory materials, while discontinuing use of “artificial intelligence” and “AI” in those documents. The order also tasks the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology with developing a proposed federal definition of “super…

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