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DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH

German gardener suspected of planting explosives German police have warned anyone who quarreled with now-deceased landscape gardener Bernhard Graumann to be on alert after it emerged that he may have planted bombs to harm those he perceived as enemies. The 59-year-old was found dead at his home in the town of Mehlingen last week. Authorities said they believe that the gardener, before his death, installed a booby-trapped device that killed a doctor in a nearby town on Friday. On Sunday, a 37year-old woman and her 4-year-old daughter were injured when a log of firewood rigged with explosives blew up inside their house. Graumann is alleged to have had disputes with both the doctor and the family.

Thai court bans party that nominated princess for PM Thaiʼs Constitutional Court on Thursday dissolved an opposition party that nominated the kingʼs sister as its candidate for prime minister. The ruling against the Thai Raksa Chart (TRC) party and Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya Sirivadhana Barnavadi strikes a blow to the oppositionʼs plans to defeat Thailandʼs military junta in elections on March 24. What the court said: TRC illegitimately nominated the princess as its prime ministerial candidate on February 8.In response, TRC leaders are barred from politics for 10 years.300 TRC candidates are also banned from contesting in the election. Why does this weaken the opposition? The opposition is hoping to win more seats in the upcoming ballot by fielding multiple parties. That became necessary after the junta made changes to the electoral system that made it harder for the biggest opposition party, Pheu Thai, to singlehandedly win a large number of seats.

57/2019 • 8 MARCH, 2019

Facebookʼs Mark Zuckerberg promises greater privacy in messaging apps Mark Zuckerberg said that private communications will become more important than public platforms

The companyʼs plan of increasing encryption may frustrate law enforcementʼs efforts to track criminals and extremists. Facebook will begin strengthening privacy features on its chat applications, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday. The announcement comes as the social media giant has been in hot water over its handling of user data and the dissemination offake news on its platforms. Facebook is one of the largest private messaging companies with its WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram platforms. Each of them has more than 1 billion users, but only WhatsApp fully secures message content from all outsiders. "The future of communication will increasingly shift to private, encrypted services where people can be confident what they say to each other stays secure and their messages and content wonʼt stick around forever," Zuckerberg saidin a poston his Facebook page. Facebookʼs plan to enhance end-to-end encryption on its messaging services, Zuckerberg emphasized, would prevent anyone from seeing what people share, including Facebook itself. Read more: Assessing WhatsAppʼs 5 years with Facebook Zuckerberg anticipated public skepticism about his plan to improve privacy, since the

company does not have a "strong reputation for building privacy protective services." But he wrote that the company had "repeatedly shown that we can evolve to build the services that people really want." Facebookʼs core platforms, such as newsfeed and groups services, as well as Instagram, will not undergo any changes. Zuckerbergʼs laser focus on private messaging suggests that the company may be looking beyond its original purpose of public sharing. But Zuckerberg downplayed expectations. "Itʼs not that I think the more public tools will go away," he said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press. "All indications are that Facebook and Instagram will continue growing and be increasingly important," he added. Nonetheless, in his announcement, he stressed that as he thought about the future of the internet, Zuckerberg saw that "privacyfocused communications platforms will become even more important than todayʼs open platforms." "Privacy gives people the freedom to be themselves and connect more naturally, which is why we build social networks," he wrote.

French court convicts cardinal of sex abuse cover-up A French court on Thursday sentenced Cardinal Philippe Barbarin to a six-month suspended jail term for covering up sexual abuse against minors by a priest under his authority. The archbishop of Lyon is the highest-ranking Catholic official in France to be caught up in a child sex abuse scandal. The Catholic Church has been rocked byrevelations of sex abuse by clergymen, promptingPope Francis to hold a crisis meetinglast month to tackle the issue. How we got here: Catholic priest Bernard Preyat admitted that he abused boy scouts during the 1980s.Barbarin and five former aides in Lyon were accused of covering up the abuse.A victimsʼ association bypassed the prosecutorʼs office and insisted the case go before a court, which is allowed in France.Barbarin and his co-defendants have denied any wrongdoing, arguing that they did not know about the abuse until it became public.

Glyphosate: EU agency must release censored study, court says An EU court ruled Thursday that European lawmakers must be given access to scientific studies examining the safety of glyphosate, a chemical commonly used in pesticides whosepossibly carcinogenic naturehas raised global controversy. The ruling by the EUʼs General Court could reinvigorate debate over glyphosate in the EU, which has seen an EU-wide petition to ban the product rejected by the blocʼs executive arm and raised questions of transparency.

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