• Digital revolution lights up Africa with maps, mobiles, money and markets | World news | guardian.co.uk
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/30/africa-digital-revolution-mobile-phones

    Thirty years later, maps of the city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are still in short supply. So Diakubama decided to create the first one of his home city. He spent hours at his computer in Brussels, where he now lives, using Google Map Maker software and entering the streets he could recall. He hired an assistant to tour Mbandaka by bike and name the streets on a map scanned in pdf format and printed out.

    Diakubama’s efforts have been replicated across Africa by scores of amateur mapmakers who have collectively pinpointed hundreds of thousands of roads, cities and buildings in remote areas ignored by colonial cartographers. This is just one example of how the digital revolution has not only caught up in Africa, but is in some respects moving faster and differently from the west.

    “New technologies are in the process of transforming the lives of people,” Diakubama said. "Mobile telephony has equipped our lives by allowing communication between cities and villages without having to move; to announce a death in the family, for example.

    #Afrique #mobile #cartographie #communication #internet

  • #Séisme de L’Aquila : les scientifiques condamnés à six ans de prison
    http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2012/10/22/seisme-de-l-aquila-derniere-audience-du-proces-des-scientifiques_1779033_324

    Les scientifiques italiens, accusés d’avoir sous-estimé les risques avant le séisme meurtrier de L’Aquila en 2009, ont été condamnés, lundi 22 octobre, à six ans de prison pour « homicide par imprudence » par le tribunal de cette ville des Abruzzes. L’enjeu de ce procès était déterminer la responsabilité de savants dans la prévision d’une catastrophe naturelle.

    « Je suis découragé, désespéré. Je pensais être acquitté, je ne comprends toujours pas de quoi je suis accusé », a commenté Enzo Boschi, jusqu’à récemment président de l’Institut national de géophysique et vulcanologie (INGV).

    (...)

    Avant le prononcé du verdict, Fabio Picuti n’a pas hésité à établir une comparaison avec l’évaluation des risques terroristes aux Etats-Unis lors des attentats du 11 septembre 2001. « Après le 11-Septembre, le rapport qui démontrait une analyse insuffisante des risques en rapport avec l’attentat a conduit à la démission du chef de la CIA et de son adjoint. Cela montre qu’un tel raisonnement existe » ailleurs, avait-il affirmé.

    Parmi les accusés figurent de grands noms de la science en Italie, comme le professeur Enzo Boschi, jusqu’à récemment président de l’Institut national de géophysique et vulcanologie, ou un professeur de physique de l’université de Gênes, Claudio Eva.

    #science #italie #procès

  • France to send #drones to #Mali in fight against al-Qaida-backed insurgents | World news | The Guardian
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/22/france-drones-mali-insurgents

    France is planning to send drones into Mali as part of an international intervention to free the west African country from al-Qaida-backed insurgents who control large swaths of its territory, according to reports.

    A French defence official said the country was moving surveillance drones to the region as part of secretive plans with the US, amid increasing fears that, if left unchecked, the crisis could serve as a launchpad for terrorist attacks on its own soil.

    Speaking to the Associated Press, the official said on Monday that France was discussing plans with the US for drones, intelligence-gathering and security in Africa’s Sahel region. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said that Germany would be prepared to train Malian security forces and would consider providing “material and logistical support”.

  • UK to double number of drones in #Afghanistan | World news | The Guardian
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/22/uk-double-drones-afghanistan

    The UK is to double the number of armed RAF “drone” flying combat and surveillance operations in Afghanistan, and for the first time the aircraft will be controlled from terminals and screens in Britain.

    In the new squadron of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), five new Reaper drones will be sent to Afghanistan, the Guardian can reveal. It is expected they will begin operations within six weeks.

    #drone #Royaume-uni

  • #Qatar announces £157m plan to rebuild #Gaza | World news | guardian.co.uk
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/17/qatar-plan-rebuild-gaza

    Qatar is to spend $254m (£157m) rebuilding Gaza, the biggest injection of reconstruction aid for the Palestinian enclave since it was devastated in an Israeli military offensive nearly four years ago.

    The Qatari ambassador Mohammed al-Amadi said cooperation had been arranged with Israel and Egypt to admit building materials and heavy machinery to Gaza, which is under a partial blockade, and work would begin within three months.

    The first project will be construction of a highway that will run the length of the Mediterranean coastal strip.

    The projects are of sufficient scale to transform Gaza and the lives of its 1.6 million people, 28% of whom are unemployed.