1 China’s superhighway to Pakistan (BBC) China's
President Xi Jinping has signed agreements with Pakistan promising investment
of $46bn. The focus of spending is on building a China-Pakistan Economic
Corridor (CPEC) - a network of roads, railway and pipelines between the
long-time allies.
They will run some 3,000km (1,800 miles) from Gwadar
in Pakistan to China's western Xinjiang region. The projects will give China
direct access to the Indian Ocean and beyond. This marks a major advance in
China's plans to boost its influence in Central and South Asia, and far exceeds
US spending in Pakistan.
Pakistan, for its part, hopes the investment will
strengthen its struggling economy and help end chronic power shortages. Pakistani
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said ties with China had "remained
robust" despite political changes and "major regional
developments" over four generations.
2 ‘Waves of millions of Africans’ likely to flood
Europe (Rowena Mason in The Guardian) Nigel Farage has warned against “waves of
millions” of people from Africa coming to Europe if the EU agrees a common
policy for tackling migrant deaths in the Mediterranean. In the wake of two
boat disasters in which hundreds of migrants have drowned, the Ukip leader said
he opposed EU action to address the problem as it could lead to a common
migration policy.
The UK government has until now resisted EU search
and rescue efforts but David Cameron signalled this week that he will be in
favour of the UK joining joint action when he attends a meeting of leaders on
Thursday. But Farage said he thought the UK could send in the Royal Navy but
should have no part in the EU-wide efforts.
Farage said: “I’m happy to send the Royal Navy, I’m
happy to stop people drowning in the Mediterranean. But it needs the
cooperation of the Italian and Greek governments to say we cannot accept an
unlimited number of people crossing over. If that message is not sent, many
millions of people will come.” Farage said he could not be “accused of being
closed-minded” as he had been in favour of accepting some Christian refugees
from Syria.
Pressed on why he only thought Christian refugees
should be accepted, the Ukip leader said it was because they have nowhere else
to go. Asked about where Britain should draw the line when it comes to
accepting refugees and saving lives, he said: “I’ve already said I’m prepared to
accept some people that have literally nowhere to go but beyond that, I’m sorry
we cannot have yet another unlimited wave coming into Britain.”
3 Whatsapp@800m users (Chew Hui Min in Straits
Times) Mobile messaging service Whatsapp now has 800 million monthly active
users, CEO Jan Koum has revealed in a Facebook post.
The app had about 600 million users when Facebook
acquired it last year, and it announced that it had reached 700 million users
in January this year. At this rate of expansion, it will reach a billion users
by the end of the year, the Wall Street Journal predicted.
In a dig at other messaging services, which often
report registered users only, Mr Koum added: "Reminder for the press out
there: active and registered users are not the same thing." Facebook
messenger is second to Whatsapp with about 600 million monthly active users,
making the company the owner of the two largest messaging services in the
world.
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