World

(FILES) This file photo taken on October 21, 2020 in Lille shows the logo of the multinational American Internet technology and services company, Google (C). – A massive outage knocked Google services including Gmail and video sharing platform YouTube offline across much of the globe. (Photo by DENIS CHARLET / AFP)A massive outage knocked Google services including Gmail and video sharing platform YouTube offline across much of the globe Monday.Within minutes, social media sites were awash with hashtags including #googledown and YouTubeDOWN as hundreds of millions of internet users tried vainly to connect to the US search engine.Google indicated the…

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara walks after his inauguration ceremony in Abidjan, Ivory Coast December 14, 2020. REUTERS/Luc Gnago Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara took the oath of office for a controversial third term on Monday, urging the opposition to help “defuse tensions” ahead of general elections early next year. The solemn ceremony was attended by 13 African counterparts as well as former French president Nicolas Sarkozy — but boycotted by the opposition, as was the election that returned Ouattara to power. “I ask all political parties to seize this new opportunity… to defuse tensions through dialogue,” the 78-year-old president said.…

Yuanyang County in central China’s Henan Province has found that an imported frozen food packaging sample tested positive for the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). The sample was taken from the packaging of a batch of imported frozen shrimp from South America, local authorities in Yuanyang reported late Sunday. As of Monday morning, local authorities have conducted nucleic acid tests on 22 relevant people, including those, who had direct contact with the food. All results showed negative. Authorities have also sealed the shipment of frozen food from which the tainted sample was taken and disinfected the storage facility. The tainted sample in…