NEW YORK (AP): It’s been a wild week in crypto, even by crypto standards.



Bitcoin tumbled, stablecoins were anything but stable and one of the crypto industry’s highest-profile companies lost a third of its market value.



The price of bitcoin dropped to around $25,420 this week, its lowest level since December 2020, according to CoinDesk.



It steadied around $30,000 Friday, but that’s still less than half the price bitcoin fetched last November.



Some bitcoin proponents have said the digital currency could protect its holders against inflation and act as a hedge against a decline in the stock market.



Lately, it’s done neither. Inflation at the consumer level rose 8.3% in April compared to a year ago, a level last seen in the early ’80′s.



With the Federal Reserve aggressively raising interest rates to try to tamp down inflation, investors are dumping risky assets, including stocks and crypto.



The S&amp;P 500 is down more than 15% this year. Bitcoin has dropped about 37% year to date.



Other cryptos have fared just as poorly. Ethereum has dropped 44% and dogecoin, a cryptocurrency favored by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, has lost about half its value.

Bitcoin tumbles, a stablecoin plunges in wild week in crypto

Kathmandu: Stakeholders have raised their voices for the effective implementation of the 'Digital Nepal Framework'.



Speakers of the interaction titled 'Technology' Journal Launch and 'Disruption of Digital Nepal Construction' organized by the Tech Journos Forum (TJF) on the occasion of National Information Technology Day have stressed the need to effectively move forward by correcting the complexities and weaknesses within the framework.



The Digital Nepal Framework, unveiled by the government in 2008, includes 80 initiatives in eight sectors. Former Vice President of Computer Association of Nepal (CAN) Sunaina Pandey said that there is a procedural hurdle for their implementation.



She said that the private sector was also taking initiative in building a digital Nepal. "The government has yet to draft an information technology bill," she said. "The framework for building a digital Nepal needs to be modified."



Pandey pointed out the lack of coordination and cooperation between the government and the private sector in implementing the Digital Nepal Framework as a problem.



Speaking on the occasion, Information Technology Expert Bivek Rana said that important issues like digital leadership, digital education-awareness, and credibility are missing in the framework.



He said that the emphasis should be on building an 'ecosystem' and not an 'application' while building digital Nepal.



"This framework is more focused on attracting foreign investment or investors," said Rana, "That is not how digital Nepal can be made."



Binod Chandra Shrestha, Deputy Director of Nepal Telecommunication Authority, said that they are working for the Digital Foundation. He said that the problem was due to procedural hurdles and a lack of coordination with stakeholders.



He said that the projects of the Rural Telecommunication Development Fund (RDTF) have been implemented through various service providers.



Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Subash Dhakal, said that the service seekers have to suffer more when government agencies go online.



"Focusing on technology alone will not solve the problem," said Dhakal, who is involved in drafting the framework. There is no problem with the domain of the digital foundation we created. There is a problem in its effective implementation."



Explaining the Digital Nepal Framework as a 'guiding framework', Dhakal said that its initiatives should be implemented on a priority basis.



As its financial model is unclear, he suggested allocating projects on the basis of competition.

Stakeholders stress on implementation of digital framework

Kathmandu: The Internet Service Providers Association of Nepal (ISPAN), an umbrella organization of Internet service providers, has warned that internet services across Nepal may be cut off ahead of local election. ISPAN has warned that the Internet may be cut off during the local election because the government has failed to pay foreign companies to purchase the Internet.



The government will have to take full responsibility if the Internet is shut down during the election, as opposed to the tendency to discourage private sector existence and investment, ISPAN said in a statement.



As the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) has completely stopped recommending foreign currency to companies like Tata, Airtel, the internet will be shut down across the country from next week due to non-payment for six months.



ISPAN has also accused the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of deliberately blocking foreign currency recommendations to shut down essential internet services.

ISPs threaten to cutoff internet connection ahead of election

DETROIT (AP): Elon Musk has sold 4.4 million shares of Tesla stock worth roughly $4 billion, most likely to help fund his purchase of Twitter.



Musk reported the sale in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. The shares were sold over the past few days, at prices ranging from $872.02 to $999.13.



The world’s richest man, who is the CEO of Tesla, tweeted that he doesn’t plan any further sales of the company’s shares.



Most of the sales took place on Tuesday, when Tesla shares closed down 12%, a huge single-day drop.



Analysts said Tesla investors fear Musk will be distracted by Twitter and less engaged in running the electric car company. Twitter agreed to be acquired by Musk on Monday for $44 billion.



It appeared that Musk would borrow up to $25.5 billion from a slew of banks to pay for the takeover of Twitter, but the stock sale potentially could fund some of that.



The deal to buy Twitter at $54.20 per share was announced earlier this week and is expected to close sometime this year.



But before the deal is completed, shareholders will have to weigh in. So will regulators in the U.S. and in countries where Twitter does business.



So far though, few hurdles are expected, despite objections from some of Twitter’s own employees and from users who worry about Musk’s stance on free speech and what it might mean for harassment and hate speech on the platform.



Tesla shares closed Thursday down slightly at $877.51. They are down 17% so far this year.

Musk sells $4B in Tesla shares, presumably for Twitter deal

(AP): The board of Twitter has agreed to a $44bn (£34.5bn) takeover offer from the billionaire Elon Musk.



Mr Musk, who made the shock bid less than two weeks ago, said Twitter had "tremendous potential" that he would unlock.



He also called for a series of changes from relaxing its content restrictions to eradicating fake accounts.



The firm initially rebuffed Mr Musk's bid, but it will now ask shareholders to vote to approve the deal.



Mr Musk is the world's richest person, according to Forbes magazine, with an estimated net worth of $273.6bn mostly due to his shareholding in electric vehicle maker Tesla which he runs. He also leads the aerospace firm SpaceX.



"Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated," Mr Musk said in a statement announcing the deal.



"I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans," he added.



"Twitter has tremendous potential - I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it."



The move comes as Twitter faces growing pressure from politicians and regulators over the content that appears on its platform. It has drawn critics from left and right over its efforts to mediate misinformation on the platform.



In one of its most high-profile moves, last year it banned former US President Donald Trump, perhaps its most powerful user, citing the risk of "incitement of violence".



At the time Mr Musk observed: "A lot of people are going to be super unhappy with West Coast high tech as the de facto arbiter of free speech."



News of the takeover has been cheered by the right in the US, although Mr Trump on Monday told Fox News he had no plans to re-join the platform.



The White House declined to comment on the takeover but spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters: "No matter who owns or runs Twitter, the president has long been concerned about the power of large social media platforms."



On Twitter, MP Julian Knight, chairman of the UK's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, called the deal an "extraordinary development in the world of social media".



"It will be interesting to see how a privately owned Twitter (run by a man who is an absolutist over free speech) will react to global moves to regulate."



BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin says scientists are nervous about the potential impact of the takeover on the climate debate.



He notes that Twitter announced last week it would ban advertisements that deny the scientific consensus on the climate crisis, with the firm admitting that misleading information can undermine efforts to protect the planet.

Elon Musk strikes deal to buy Twitter for $44bn

Kathmandu: The Taliban has ordered a ban on video-sharing app TikTok and online multi-player game PUBG, insisting they were leading Afghan youths "astray".



The militant group said it would also ban TV channels from airing what it deemed as "immoral material".



It comes after recent bans on music, movies and television soap operas.



The Taliban promised a softer approach to government when it took power last year, but has increasingly curtailed freedoms especially for women.



The group was known for their severe version of Islamist rule that characterised their first stint in government between 1996 and 2001.



Taliban spokesman Inamullah Samangani said that the latest ban was necessary to "prevent the younger generation from being misled".



But it is not clear when the ban will come into place, and for how long.



This is the first time the group has banned an app since they came to power last August.



TikTok and PUBG had become even more relevant with young Afghans in recent months because many other forms of entertainment have been banned, says the BBC's Afghan Service editor Hameed Shuja.



TikTok in particular has been popular with young men who enjoy filming short, humorous video clips and posting them on the platform, says our colleague.



PUBG, which is short for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, is an online shooting game created by a South Korean developer that has also been quite popular. A previous attempt by the former government to ban PUBG ended up unsuccessful.



The number of internet users in Afghanistan has grown rapidly in recent years along with its youth population, with about nine million users currently.



Nearly two-thirds of the country's population of 39 million are aged 25 and below.



The ban was announced on Thursday, the same day as when four separate explosions tore through cities across Afghanistan, including at a Shia mosque in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif.



At least 31 people were killed and 87 wounded. The Islamic State group has admitted to carrying out the attack.



On Thursday state news agency Bakhtar News reported that the Taliban had arrested the mastermind of the mosque attack.

Taliban orders TikTok, PUBG ban for 'misleading' youths

(BBC): Twitter has confirmed that it is working on an edit button that would allow users to change tweets after they have been posted.



It comes after new board member, Tesla boss Elon Musk, asked his followers in a Twitter poll whether they wanted the feature.



Some users have long called for an edit button but there are concerns about how to execute it.



Twitter said it would start testing the idea in the coming months.



The social media firm's communications team tweeted: "Now that everyone is asking… yes, we've been working on an edit feature since last year!



"No, we didn't get the idea from a poll 😉," it added.



"We're kicking off testing within @TwitterBlue Labs in the coming months to learn what works, what doesn't, and what's possible."



Users of Twitter Blue, the platform's subscription service, get early access to features it is testing.



Under an edit function users would be able to fix typos or errors in a tweet without losing any replies, retweets or likes it has already gained.



Jay Sullivan, the company's vice president of consumer product, said it had been "the most requested Twitter feature for many years" in a thread on Tuesday.



However, he said the company was exploring how to build the feature "in a safe manner".



"Without things like time limits, controls, and transparency about what has been edited, Edit could be misused to alter the record of the public conversation," he said. "Protecting the integrity of that public conversation is our top priority when we approach this work."



During a talk in 2018, former Twitter boss Jack Dorsey said the firm would "probably never" add the feature amid concerns about transparency.



But rival social media platforms Facebook and Instagram already allow users to edit their posts, and Twitter's new boss Parag Agrawal appears open to the idea.



Elon Musk started a poll on Monday after disclosing that he owned a 9.2% stake in Twitter, which made him the firm's biggest shareholder.



On Tuesday it was announced that he had been appointed to Twitter's board.



The poll has already attracted over four million votes.



Twitter initially said it was exploring an edit button on 1 April but it was widely interpreted as an April Fool's joke.

Twitter confirms it is working on an edit button

(AP): Tesla CEO Elon Musk has taken a 9% stake in Twitter to become its largest shareholder after raising questions about the social media platform’s dedication to free speech.



The ultimate aim of Musk’s 73.5 million share purchase worth $3 billion based on the closing price Friday, is not clear. Yet in late March Musk, who has 80 million Twitter followers and is very active on the site, questioned free speech on Twitter and whether the platform is undermining democracy.



The regulatory filing Monday says Musk bought the shares on March 14, describing him as a long-term investor looking to minimize his buying and selling of the shares.



That means that Musk acquired the shares before beginning his public discourse on the First Amendment and Twitter.



Yet Musk has also raised the possibility, publicly before his massive and loyal Twitter following, of starting a rival social media network.



Industry analysts are skeptical about whether the mercurial CEO will remain on the sidelines for long.



“We would expect this passive stake as just the start of broader conversations with the Twitter board/management that could ultimately lead to an active stake and a potential more aggressive ownership role of Twitter,” Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities said in a client note early Monday.



Twitter’s stock surged more than 22% at the opening bell Monday. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.



Musk told his more than 80 million followers on Twitter that he was “ giving serious thought ” to creating his own social media platform and has clashed repeatedly with financial regulators about his use of Twitter.



His Twitter stock purchase comes as Musk is locked into a bitter dispute with U.S. securities regulators over his ability to post on Twitter. Musk’s lawyer has contended in court motions that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is infringing on the Tesla CEO’s First Amendment rights.



In October of 2018, Musk and Tesla agreed to pay $40 million in civil fines and for Musk to have his tweets approved by a corporate lawyer after he tweeted about having the money to take Tesla private at $420 per share.



The funding was far from secured and the electric vehicle company remains public, but Tesla’s stock price jumped. The settlement specified governance changes, including Musk’s ouster as board chairman, as well as pre-approval of his tweets. The SEC brought a securities fraud charge, alleging that Musk was manipulating the stock price with his posts.



Musk’s lawyer is now asking a U.S. District Court judge in Manhattan to throw out the settlement, contending that the SEC is harassing him and infringing on his First Amendment rights.



Early in March, Musk asked Judge Alison Nathan to nullify an SEC subpoena and throw out the settlement agreement. His lawyer, Alex Spiro, said the SEC has used the court agreement “to trample on Mr. Musk’s First Amendment rights and to impose prior restraints on his speech.”



The SEC responded in a court motion, saying it has legal authority to subpoena Tesla and Musk about his tweets, and that Musk’s move to throw out the settlement is not valid.



The SEC disclosed that it is investigating Musk’s Nov. 6, 2021 tweets that asked followers whether he should sell 10% of his Tesla stake. The commission confirmed that it issued administrative subpoenas while investigating whether Musk and Tesla are complying with disclosure controls in the 2018 agreement.



The commission also is investigating whether Tesla described accurately in public filings with the agency whether it complied with the controls.



The commission maintains that the subpoenas were lawful, and that Musk isn’t following proper legal procedure to challenge them. SEC attorney Melissa Armstrong called Musk’s challenge “frivolous,” and pointed out that Musk and Tesla agreed to have his tweets pre-approved by other company officials.



“Courts have long recognized that ‘congress has vested the SEC with broad authority to conduct investigations into possible violations of federal securities laws and to demand production of evidence relevant to such investigations,’” Armstrong wrote.



The subpoenas, issued under seal, come from a formal order by the commission authorizing the investigation. They seek all written communications concerning the Nov. 6 tweets and whether they were shown to Tesla lawyers for pre-approval.



Musk attorney Spiro has asked for verbal arguments in the case.



Musk’s revelation about his stake in Twitter shares comes two days after Tesla Inc. posted first-quarter delivery numbers. While the company delivered 310,000 vehicles in the period, the figure was slightly below expectations.



Shortly after the November tweets about the Tesla stock sale Musk began selling off shares, and he wrote on Twitter that the sale would go to pay tax obligations on stock options. Analysts estimate his tax obligation at $10 billion to $15 billion. But some of the money could have been used to buy the Twitter stake.



So far he has sold more than 15 million shares worth roughly $16.4 billion. With some sales in late December, Musk is close to selling 10%.

Suddenly, Tesla’s Elon Musk is Twitter’s biggest stakeholder

(BBC): A man says he was forced to hack into a domestic Indian airline's website to find his missing luggage.



Nandan Kumar, 28, called IndiGo - a low-cost carrier - for help, after realising that he had swapped his bag with a co-passenger.



But after IndiGo refused to help him trace the other person, Mr Kumar said he was able to retrieve information about him from the airline website.



IndiGo told the BBC that "at no point was the IndiGo website compromised".



Mr Kumar says he's not a professional hacker, but had to "do something" to retrieve his luggage.



In a series of tweets, Mr Kumar, a software engineer, said by the time he got to the airport luggage belt, a co-passenger had taken his bag and left.



He told the BBC he only realised the mistake after getting home, because both bags looked exactly alike.&nbsp;



He was able to identify the other person's Passenger Name Record number or PNR through a luggage tag, but when he called the airline to ask for information about the passenger, they refused to help, citing privacy and data protection rules.



In a statement sent to the BBC, IndiGo said their "customer care team followed protocol by not sharing any other passenger's contact details with another passenger. This is in line with our data privacy policies."&nbsp;



"The agent assured me that they would call me back when they are able to reach this person," Mr Kumar said. "But the call never came."



In a statement sent to the BBC, IndiGo airlines said that "attempts were made by the customer care team to facilitate the exchange of baggage, but it could not be completed as the calls went unanswered."



The next morning, Mr Kumar says he decided to "take matters" into his own hands.



He started digging into IndiGo's website using his co-passenger's PNR, in the hope of finding an address or a phone number.



He tried various methods - using the check-in process, by editing the booking and updating the contact. But none of it worked.



"After all failed attempts, my developer instinct kicked in and I pressed the F12 button on my computer keyboard and opened the developer console on the IndiGo website," Mr Kumar said. "I thought 'let me check the network logs'."



What he found was surprising - his co-passenger's phone number. "To be frank, I only checked for a phone number or an email. Basically anything I could use to get in touch to retrieve my bag."



He says, however, that the system's data should have been encrypted, adding that it allowed anyone to access private information.&nbsp;



"A PNR and a last name is very easy to get. People share their boarding passes. Anyone can see your bags, take a picture and later use it get your information," Mr Kumar says.



But it all ended well for Mr Kumar and his bag.



He called his fellow passenger with the phone number he had retrieved from the system logs, and the two met up to swap their luggage.

Man says he hacked airline website to find lost luggage

How China’s TikTok, Facebook influencers push propaganda

Kathmandu: Xiaomi Nepal has announced the pre-booking of the Xiaomi 12 Pro from its all new flagship Xiaomi 12 series. The pre-booking starts from March 25 to 29 March 2022.



Xiaomi has brought some flagship offers during the pre-order.



Mi Fans will get instant cashback of Rs. 5000 along with Mi Neckband Bluetooth Earphone Pro free or Mi Portable Bluetooth Speaker free on every purchase of Xiaomi 12 Pro.



Xiaomi 12 Pro comes in two colors- Purple and Blue in the 12GB+256GB variant, and its recommended retail price is Rs. 1,14,999.



Xiaomi 12 Pro packs 120W fast charging which can fully charge your phone within 18 minutes. Xiaomi 12 Pro features a 6.73″ AMOLED LTPO display with HDR10+ and Dolby Vision.



It comes in multiple memory variants: 12GB+256GB. Powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen1 processor the phone comes with a triple rear camera setup with a 50MP main camera, 50MP telephoto + 50 MP wide-angle cameras.



Mi Fans can pre-book the Xiaomi 12 Pro at the nearest authorized Mi store and Retail Stores, the products will be available from 30th March for sale.

Xiaomi Nepal announces pre-booking for Xiaomi 12

Kathmandu: OPPO has launched its latest A-series smartphone – OPPO A76 – in Nepal. OPPO A76 comes with a 6.56-inch punch-hole along with a 90Hz refresh rate and 180Hz touch sampling rate display. It’s also equipped with a 5000mAh battery, coupled with OPPO’s self-developed 33W SUPERVOOC TM charging. Available in Glowing Blue or Glowing Black, the color options the phone is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 680. This phone offers a memory and storage combination of 6GB + 128GB, allowing microSD storage expansion up to 1TB. OPPO A76 carries an 8MP front camera with a 13MP f2.2 main sensor on top and a 2MP secondary bokeh camera on the bottom. The phone will be available for purchase at a retail price of Rs. 29,990.

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