Exponential progress in the area of ICT improves access to data and information, which in its turn can lead to greater accessibility, reduced complexity, efficiency and respect of fundamental rights in policy, law making and implementation of law. Drafting and publication of laws need to be reformed from paper based format to modern digital media. Expertise, evidence and data should constitute mandatory elements of policy and law making. Ex-post quantified evaluation of legislation needs to be applied consistently. This study was prepared by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the JURI Committee. Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

[DW] President Felix Tshisekedi was in Germany to meet with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He spoke with DW exclusively about the ongoing Congo-Rwanda standoff, his country's first female prime minister and German infrastructure.

Bilateral relations between Seychelles and Pakistan will continue and there will be possibly some agreements signed between the two countries, said the outgoing Pakistani high commissioner on Tuesday. Muhammad Arshad Jan Pathan area, who served as a non-resident high commissioner for two years, paid a farewell call to Seychelles' President Wavel Ramkalawan at State House. He told reporters that the farewell visit was very fruitful. “We have seen the momentum has taken a high peak in Pakistan-Seychelles relations, with the visit of the [Seychelles'] Chief of Defence Forces to Pakistan in November 2022 and then a trade delegation that attended the Pakistan Trade Conference also in November 2022,” he said. The outgoing high commissioner added: “I’ve focused mainly on the political area and we have gained a lot of momentum, this is a testimony of these two visits to Pakistan, particularly in defence and trade so this is the outcome of our political relations.” He said, “We are hopeful that soon we will be signing a few more bilateral agreements and MOUs [memorandums of understanding] in trade, drug trafficking control and health services and trade population.” The outgoing high commissioner also paid a farewell call to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Tourism, Sylvestre Radegonde, at Maison Queau de Quinssy on Monday. During their meeting, the two diplomats discussed agreements that have been signed between the two countries in various areas such as health and combatting financial crimes. They also discussed negotiations to revise the bilateral air service agreement between the two countries, signed in 1979, and possible cooperation in the field of maritime security.

UK sanctions on Russia have failed to “cause real trouble” for the country’s economy, the chair of the Treasury Select Committee has said Read Full Article at RT.com

RIYADH: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received officials from around the world in Riyadh after a special meeting of the World Economic forum ended on Monday. The officials included Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, the Prime Minister of Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim, and the Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif.

RIYADH: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan held talks with his French and Turkish counterparts on Monday. The discussions took place on the sidelines of a ministerial consultative meeting of the six-party Arab Committee to discuss developments in the Gaza war, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Talks with Hakan Fidan of Turkiye and Stephane Sejourne focused on coordinating efforts to advance the two-state solution and acknowledge the Palestinian state, SPA added.  

RIYADH: Saudi authorities warned residents that most parts of the Kingdom will experience severe weather until Friday. The National Center of Meteorology on Monday forecast moderate-to-heavy rain in the Madinah, Makkah, Jeddah, Baha and Najran regions, accompanied by high winds, hail and thunder. Saudi Arabia’s General Directorate of Civil Defense also issued severe weather warnings accompanied by safety instructions as the country braces for heavy rainfall in coming days.

Las Anod (HOL) - The SSC Khatumo administration has accused the Somaliland administration of fueling conflicts in the areas of the Sanag region following the recent killing of two civilians from SSC areas.

A man with a sword has been arrested after an attack on members of the public and police officers in Hainault, north-east London, police have said.

A spokesman for the couple confirmed that Meghan would not accompany Prince Harry to a service at St Paul's Cathedral to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games.

The study, involving more than 350,000 Brits, showed those with a high genetic risk of a shorter life are a fifth more likely to die young than those with a low genetic risk, regardless of their lifestyle.

The State Department announced the findings Monday about five Israeli units, including four determined to have 'remediated' problems. The violations came before the Oct. 7 attack.

CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: Always read the small print. Everybody knows it and nobody ever does - when you're young, you can't be bothered, and when you're old, you can't find your reading glasses.

The parties agreed to continue dialogue and seek Palestinian unity as soon as possible

A solemn ceremony will be held at the Gorky Zelenodolsk shipyard

10 homes and a power transmission line were damaged

The number of graft-related reports dipped in 2023, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CIPB) said on Tuesday (April 30) when it released its annual statistics. It received 215 corruption-related reports in 2023 — down by eight per cent from 234 reported in 2022, and 249 in 2021. Of  these, CPIB registered 81 reports as new cases for investigation in 2023. In 2022, 83 new cases were registered. A report is registered for investigation «if the information received is pursuable», CPIB said. One of the cases involved former transport minister S Iswaran. The 61-year-old is facing a total of 35 charges, including obtaining valuable things as a public servant.

Ottawa is planning to roll out a mandatory buyback program for military-style firearms during the 2025 election year, after the program was delayed by Canada Post's refusal to participate, sources say.

While federal officials say there’s still no sign of a dangerous form of bird flu appearing in Canadian dairy cows, scientists warn limited surveillance means Canada might not be staying ahead of an explosive H5N1 outbreak impacting dairy cattle south of the border.

It was predicted that the all-self-checkout format would eventually become the norm. But, instead, several big box chains in Canada and the U.S. continue to ditch self-checkout machines at a number of their stores. Some experts and retailers say, in many cases, theft is the main culprit.

An updated document assessing the impact of the partnership with the east African country states that Rwanda has agreed to accept 5,700 people.

Amit Shah criticized Congress for spreading fake videos, accused Rahul Gandhi of degrading politics. Kharge criticized BJP for hate speech. Shah questioned Congress's inaction in Karnataka case. He questioned Gandhi's confidence in avoiding traditional seats in Uttar Pradesh. Responding to this, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that the BJP has «expertise» to «make videos and defame people through social media.»

Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi, on Tuesday took charge as the 26th Navy chief after R Hari Kumar retired from service. Dinesh K Tripathi, earlier served as the director-general of naval operations and the flag officer commanding-in-chief of the Western Naval Command. An official announcement was made by the government on April 19.

«As many as 685 farmers took their own lives in Marathwada and the State Agriculture Minister's home district, Beed, reported the highest number of deaths at 186. Now, after suffering from drought conditions for the last four months, the Marathwada region has been hit by unseasonal rains and hailstorms, causing severe crop losses, The ruling BJP government has not declared this event a national disaster or announced any relief measures,» Ramesh said.

Lecturers and representatives from different universities in the region participated in the first session of the ERASMUS Blue HEI project hosted by the University of Seychelles (UniSey) on ways of making the Blue Economy more mainstream. Speaking to SNA, the acting director for the Blue Economy Research Institute (BERI) at UniSey, Dr Jerome Harlay said, «The project is meant to develop ways of transferring academic skills to the public domain by using the students to get training and exposure from outside Seychelles within the region. As well as European universities, we are collaborating with especially the work and different types of activities that they offer there.» He said that Blue Economy is one of the flagships of Seychelles and «so we have got sort of an advance in that. Still, we must also be aware of what is developing in other countries, especially neighbouring countries such as Madagascar and Comoros, because they are making their way also and there are good ideas that we can all share.» Harlay added that the most important factor of a project like this is the creation of links between the participants. The delegates were from different universities from Madagascar, Mauritius, Portugal and the University of Alicante, which is managing this project. The director of the Institutional Project Department of the University of Alicante, Carolina Madeleine, described this first session as a very positive experience. She said that all the delegates were met to brainstorm ways of implementation for this project and «so far, it's only been on paper so we've brought together everyone to discuss the way forward. This project aims at providing capacity building for higher education – to involve students, businesses and investors.» The project is being funded through the ERASMUS + programme, which is a European Union fund meant to support education, training, youth and sport. «The application process for this grant was very selective, out of 800 applications only 150 were selected,» Madeleine said. Among the delegates present at the three-day session, was also a representative of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission for the Indian Ocean and representatives of businesses based in the region, who were following online. «One of the outcomes of the project is an online platform aimed at providing academic and entrepreneurial information based on the Blue Economy that anyone can access. To show the extent of the potential that the Blue Economy can have in the development of a country. It is also meant to encourage people to take up the Blue Economy, either in research or business. We want students to be more innovative, and entrepreneurial and to think outside the box,» said Madeleine. She shared that this project will include a survey to gauge the capacity of the universities participating in the project before a dedicated office for the Blue Economy is set up. «We are working with different universities and different countries, they all have a different reality, so each office might not be identical we need to understand the situation for each university, here you already have different entities and departments as well as a ministry dedicated for the blue economy but this is not the case elsewhere,» she said. Another outcome of the project is a competition for the students from the different participating universities who will have to submit a project related to the Blue Economy that can be implemented in their country.

La DGDI, entendez, Direction Générale de la Documentation et de l'Immigration. Les usagers investissent les lieux chaque jour. Nationaux et expatriés vont et viennent, qui pour se faire établir ou renouveler un passeport, qui pour se faire établir ou renouveler une carte de séjour et bien d'autres...Les plaintes sont souvent légions, les attentes aussi longues. Les usagers ont eu une agréable surprise d'être religieusement écouté, chacun à tour de rôle, par le Commandant Nestor Alaba, (...) - SOCIETE / SUJET_ECRIT_MAISON

Kango, le 29 Avril 2024 – Le ministre des Eaux et Forêts, le Général de Brigade Maurice Ntossui Allogo, a procédé ce jour au lancement des travaux d'aménagement du site de construction de Libreville 2, d'une superficie de 48 160 hectares, à Andem, dans le département du Komo (Kango). Les travaux d'aménagement forestier sont menés par la société de mise en valeur du bois Forestry Development Gabon (FDG). Un inventaire forestier a été réalisé afin de disposer de données fiables sur le (...) - INFRASTRUCTURES / SUJET_ECRIT_MAISON

Channel 5's 'When Evil Came To Rochdale', which aired last night, explored how parents across the country have faced abuse - and even had their children taken away.