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Facebook founder, Zuckerberg, pledges $3 bn to banish disease

Mark Zuckerberg and his wife on Wednesday pledged $3 billion over the next decade to help banish or manage all disease, pouring some of the Facebook founder’s fortune into innovative research.

“This is a big goal,” Zuckerberg said at a San Francisco event announcing the effort of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative established by the couple.

“But we spent the last few years speaking with experts who think it is possible, so we dug in.”

Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, had their daughter Max late last year. Shortly after, they pledged to donate 99 percent of their Facebook holdings or some $45 billion to “advance human potential and promote equality.”

At Wednesday’s event, Zuckerberg said their goal is to cure all disease, or at least turn catastrophic illnesses from terminal to manageable or preventable within their daughter’s lifetime.

World Peace Day: Ambode charges Lagosians to shun violence

As the world marked the International Peace Day, Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode on Wednesday charged Lagosians to shun all acts of violence and embrace mediation as a mean of conflict resolution.

The governor said while shunning violence, they should embrace peaceful means of resolving disputes by collaborating with government to build blocks for peace through a non-violence path in resolving differences, stressing that violence did not build peace but rather destroys and retards development.
Ambode, who attributed the steady progress in the state‎ to the peaceful co-existence of residents, said that the state government had established the Citizens Mediation Centre, CMC, to ensure sustained harmony among over 22 million heterogeneous residents.‎
Speaking a the 2016 International Day of Peace organised by the Lagos State CMC,in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, he charged Lagosians to do everything possible to eschew violence, as the state had the potentials to experience continuous turnaround development, if the peaceful coexistence in the state was sustained.
“Peace is germane to any society that wants to develop. Peace is very important to the state government, it is very important to all the stakeholders in the state to live peacefully. It is not only to ensure peaceful co-existence but to ensure that we guarantee the safety of lives of the residents,” he said.

Google launches app to rival WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger

Google took aim Wednesday at the red-hot mobile messaging market, with a new artificial intelligence-powered Allo app that seeks to compete with popular rivals such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

But the app’s reliance on Google’s predictive software drew immediate criticism from privacy advocates who argued it could open up user data to law enforcement — with former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden warning people not to use it.

Google defended its privacy stand, saying users can opt for a more secure “incognito” mode if they prefer.

The app includes Google Assistant, an artificial intelligence program which makes live suggestions as you chat.

“You no longer need to leave a conversation with friends just to grab an address, share your favorite YouTube video, or pick a dinner spot,” Google said in a blog post.

“Google Allo can help you make plans, find information, and express yourself more easily in chat. And the more you use it, the more it improves over time,” Google said.

The app will adjust according to whether its user’s style is usually an emoji or written response, for example.

Like rival apps, it has tools for personalizing chat messages including changing the size of emojis and a choice of stickers.

– Keeping pace –

Allo was unveiled by Google in May at the same time as Google Duo, an app for video calls, which hit the market last month.

The app is available on smartphones using Google’s Android system and Apple’s iOS.

29 dead after boat carrying 600 African migrants capsize

A boat carrying 600 migrants has capsized off the Egyptian coast near Kafr al-Sheikh, the Egyptian military said Wednesday.
Around 150 people have been rescued and authorities have retrieved at least 29 bodies so far, the country’s state media reported.
Officials haven’t said where the boat was headed to.
But migrants are leaving African countries in large numbers for Europe, often in rickety boats on perilous voyages that regularly turn fatal.
On Tuesday, the Egyptian military arrested 68 people on a boat trying to make its way to Europe. They were captured off the coast of Matrouh.
Last week, the country’s navy thwarted two attempts by people trying to cross from Egypt to Europe. More than 400 would-be migrants from various nationalities were arrested in that operation.