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Prince Harry sued by African charity he set up to honour Princess Diana

A charity co-founded by Prince Harry in Africa to honour his late mother, Princess Diana, has sued him for defamation after he stepped down as a patron last year. Sentebale, which supports young people living with HIV in Botswana and Lesotho, filed suit last month in London’s High Court, according to court records reviewed Friday. Online filings show Harry and his friend, Mark Dyer, a trustee at the charity, are being sued for either libel or slander. No documents were available. Disagreements...

Ukrainians sceptical as Russia’s Putin orders Easter truce

Ukrainians on Friday were wary of Russia’s pledge to pause fighting for an Orthodox Easter ceasefire – first proposed by Kyiv – this weekend. The Kremlin said it had ordered a temporary truce to be in effect from Saturday afternoon until the end of Sunday, a 32-hour period during which Russia would stop fighting “in all directions”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – who has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in the four-year war – said Kyiv was willing to reciprocate. But in Kyiv there was...

Girl, 9, in a critical condition with meningococcal infection after holiday in Japan

A nine-year-old Hong Kong girl has contracted a rare bacterial infection and is fighting for her life in hospital after visiting Japan during the Easter holiday, with health authorities contacting the other tour group members as a precaution. The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said on Friday that the girl, who was in a critical condition in the paediatric intensive care unit of Princess Margaret Hospital in Kwai Chung, began showing symptoms of invasive meningococcal infection including...

China’s Li Qiang urges faster industrial AI adoption at meeting with Moonshot AI founder

Yang Zhilin, founder of fast-rising start-up Moonshot AI, has become the latest artificial intelligence entrepreneur to meet Chinese Premier Li Qiang, as Beijing steps up its push to accelerate the digital transformation of manufacturing. The 32-year-old was among a select group of business leaders and experts invited to a high-level symposium on Friday, where participants offered views on China’s economic resilience and future growth drivers. Li acknowledged that the external environment had...

China banks buffer against AI contagions as US sweats over Anthropic’s Mythos

With US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell reported to have held urgent talks over Anthropic’s latest artificial intelligence model, experts are warning that immediate cybersecurity assessments are needed to avert potential economic damage running into the hundreds of billions of US dollars. Across the Pacific, however, analysts said China’s banks were taking a more cautious approach, as Beijing prioritises financial stability and intensifies monitoring of...

China telecoms face US exit risk as FCC deepens crackdown on data centres

The latest US restrictions on Chinese telecoms operators could ultimately force them out of the American market, analysts said, marking an escalation in Washington’s multi-year crackdown on Chinese technology. The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said on Thursday that it was considering broader measures to bar Chinese telecom carriers from operating data centres in its territory, further restricting Chinese telecoms carriers’ access to US networks and infrastructure. China Mobile,...

‘Ruthlessly’ abusive man jailed after wife died jumping from Scotland bridge

Kimberley Milne jumped to her death in Scotland in July 2023, but prosecutors in a landmark case said on Friday that she was driven to do it by her husband’s physical abuse. Lee Milne, 40, was sentenced to eight years in prison following his conviction in Glasgow’s High Court for culpable homicide and engaging in abusive behaviour. It was the first case in which Scottish prosecutors asked jurors to find an abusive spouse responsible for the death of a victim who takes their own life. “Lee Milne...