Huawei、Alexa搭載スマートスピーカー兼4Gルータ「AI Cube」発表

Huawei、Alexa搭載スマートスピーカー兼4Gルータ「AI Cube」発表

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中国Huaweiは8月31日（現地時間）、ドイツのベルリンで開催の家電ショー「IFA 2018」で、スマートスピーカー兼4Gルータ「HUAWEI AI Cube」を発表した。
September 02, 2018 at 08:37AM

Trains Delayed: Ethiopia Debt Worries Curtail China Funding

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Trains Delayed: Ethiopia Debt Worries Curtail China Funding Ethiopia has been lauded by experts from China's ruling Communist Party as a "model country" in Beijing's $126 billion Belt and Road initiative to build rail, road and sea links tying China to Eurasia and Africa. But as the Horn of Africa nation of 100 million people faces debt distress, there are signs that China, a major creditor, is slowing financing to Ethiopia as doubts grow over the profitability of some infrastructure projects there. "The intensifying repayment risks from the Ethiopian government's debt reaching 59 percent of GDP is worrying investors," China's mission to the African Union in Addis Ababa said on its website in July. It said that Chinese investment in Ethiopia country was cooling and that the China Export and Credit Insurance Corp was reducing the scale of its investment there. ​Top destination for China loans Against a backdrop of rising worry over African indebtedness to China, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed will visit Beijing for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which starts Monday. He is to meet Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang and is expected to court investment from Chinese firms into Ethiopia's agro-industrial and pharmaceutical businesses, China's Xinhua news agency said. Ethiopia has been a top destination for Chinese loans in Africa, despite its lack of natural resources, with state policy banks extending it more than $12.1 billion since 2000, according to the China Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington (SAIS). The country's ruling EPRDF coalition, in power since ousting a military junta in 1991, aims for Ethiopia to reach middle income status by 2025 and is pursuing ambitious manufacturing-led industrialization that has involved building roads, a railway, and industrial parks, as well as mounting debt. Ethiopian Central Bank Governor Yinager Dessie told Reuters in July that the government hopes to reduce its debt with China, which he said holds most of Ethiopia's bilateral foreign debt. "We will have some discussions in the months ahead. I don't exactly know where that discussion will take us in terms of seeing or looking for diversified options for debt repayment," Dessie said. Railway blues China's concern over the profitability of some of the transport projects it is backing in landlocked Ethiopia has focused on a standard-gauge railway connecting Addis Ababa to the port of Djibouti. "The sustainability of the projects is weak," Zhao Lei, a professor at the Central Party School in Beijing, wrote in the party-run Guangming Daily in June, pointing to a Chinese-funded light railway around the capital Addis Ababa and the Ethiopia-Djibouti rail project. He said there had been "insufficient consideration of the additional infrastructure and the service and maintenance." The main section of the railway opened in 2016, but Chinese financing for a northern extension, from Woldia to Mekele, has suffered multiple delays and the full funding package from the Chinese Export and Import Bank has not been released yet, according to Tang Xiaoyang, a professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing who does fieldwork in Ethiopia. The main concern causing delays is the economic sustainability and feasibility of the project, he said. China's ExIm bank and the China Communications Construction Company did not respond to faxed requests for comment. "ExIm has become more risk-averse for new projects," said Yunnan Chen, a researcher at the China Africa Research Initiative at SAIS. Ethiopia is likely hoping for a breakthrough on the project at the China-Africa forum, she said. "These breakthroughs are a part of FOCAC where the publicity of the event makes it a good opportunity for African countries like Ethiopia to get pledges from China."
September 02, 2018 at 10:26AM

Ugandan Lawmaker Arrives in US for Medical Treatment

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Ugandan Lawmaker Arrives in US for Medical Treatment Prominent Ugandan opposition lawmaker Robert Kyagulanyi arrived in the United States on Saturday to seek medical treatment for what he said was torture by authorities in his country. Kyagulanyi, a popular musician known by his stage name Bobi Wine, was elected last year and has amassed a large following among youth electrified by his scathing criticism of President Yoweri Museveni, sometimes delivered in his songs. Protests had erupted in the Ugandan capital on Friday after police detained Kyagulanyi at the airport during a previous attempt to travel abroad for medical care. In a tweet posted on Saturday evening, Kyagulanyi said: "Safely arrived in the US where I'll be receiving specialized treatment following the brutal torture at the hands of SFC soldiers." That referred to Uganda's Special Forces Command. "I will soon tell you what exactly happened to me since 13th August and what is next," he said, referring to the day he was detained after being accused by authorities of throwing stones at a presidential convoy. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Kyagulanyi posted in his tweet a picture of himself sitting in a wheelchair and holding crutches, posing in an airport next to his wife. The lawmaker has said he was beaten up and tortured while in detention. Ugandan authorities initially dismissed the allegations as "rubbish" and "fake news." But late on Friday a police spokesman said there would be an investigation into those allegations. Kyagulanyi, who has emerged as a formidable threat to the president who has been in power for 32 years, was charged with treason over his alleged role in the stoning of Museveni's convoy. Museveni has won praise in the West for his opposition to militant Islam in the region, but many Ugandans regard the 73-year-old as out of touch with his people, nearly 80 percent of whom are under age 30. He has been in power since 1986 and has repeatedly been accused by his opponents of rights abuses and the widespread use of security forces to suppress opposition to his rule. He denies charges that his government is involved in rights violations.
September 02, 2018 at 09:54AM