Month: September 2021

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VoltDB lance la réplication croisée de centres de données sans perte Active(N)

Une capacité brevetée permet à la plate-forme de données VoltDB de répliquer les données dans plus de trois centres de données à la fois tout en atténuant les conflits de données

BEDFORD, Massachussets, 31 août 2021/PRNewswire/ — En réponse directe aux besoins de ses principaux clients, travaillant avec certains des plus grands opérateurs télécoms du marché, VoltDB, la principale plate-forme de données de niveau entreprise construite pour permettre une prise de décision rapide en matière de données, a annoncé aujourd’hui l’introduction de sa réplication croisée de centres de données (XDCR) Active(N)tm Loseless. Active(N) Lossless XDCR donnera aux opérateurs de télécommunications et aux entreprises qui cherchent à mettre en place des cas d’utilisation de la 5G un avantage considérable en augmentant la résilience de leurs réseaux contre les pannes et les risques de sécurité, ainsi qu’en ajoutant une protection supplémentaire contre la perte de données.

Active(N) Lossless XDCR réplique les données en temps réel dans quatre centres de données ou plus à la fois, ce qui permet d’obtenir une disponibilité « cinq neuf » (c’est-à-dire 99,999 %), qui devient rapidement indispensable à l’ère de la 5G.

« Nous venons d’élever la barre en matière de cohérence, de résilience et d’évolutivité des données », déclare Dheeraj Remella, directeur des produits chez VoltDB. « Nous pouvons maintenant offrir un niveau de réplication de centre de données qu’aucune autre plate-forme de données ne peut offrir, et cela permet vraiment aux entreprises d’avoir une disponibilité et une résilience infaillibles intégrées à leur architecture afin qu’elles puissent augmenter considérablement leur succès dans la monétisation de la 5G. »

La promesse de latence ultra-faible de la 5G crée de nouveaux cas d’utilisation qui obligent les données à être à la fois immédiatement disponibles et cohérentes, quelle que soit la localisation de l’utilisateur. Ce nouveau paradigme conduit inévitablement à des conflits de données. La solution XDCR unique de VoltDB offrira aux opérateurs de télécommunications et aux entreprises la possibilité unique de résoudre les conflits à la fois au niveau de l’application et de la base de données, afin de maintenir la résilience et la cohérence des données, même à des latences inférieures à 10 millisecondes et quel que soit l’endroit où les données sont stockées, dans un seul ou plusieurs centres de données

« N’importe qui peut effectuer des transactions rapidement », a déclaré Remella. « Nous donnons à nos clients les moyens de les faire rapidement tout en observant puis en corrigeant les inévitables conflits qui surviennent lorsque le même enregistrement est modifié dans plusieurs centres de données en même temps. Cela place les opérateurs de télécommunications et les entreprises qui utilisent VoltDB dans une position unique pour fournir une protection sans précédent contre les défaillances des centres de données et les cyber-attaques, tout en fournissant un accès aux données incroyablement rapide pour leurs applications distribuées dans le monde entier, y compris les applications critiques. »

Avec Active(N) Lossless XDCR, VoltDB enrichit sa plate-forme de données de niveau entreprise avec une fonctionnalité sans précédent pour aider les clients à se différencier dans la feuille de route vers l’automatisation et la transformation numérique et à construire des réseaux robustes qui permettent un déploiement et une monétisation plus rapides des cas d’utilisation de la 5G.

Pour plus d’informations sur VoltDB, rendez-vous sur le site www.voltdb.com/why-voltdb/activen-xdcr/ .

À propos de VoltDB
VoltDB permet aux applications d’entreprise d’ingérer, de traiter et d’agir sur les données en quelques millisecondes pour exploiter de nouvelles sources de revenus et prévenir les pertes de revenus. Possédant d’importants clients dans les télécommunications, la finance, les jeux et bien d’autres secteurs verticaux, la plate-forme de données VoltDB est idéalement positionnée pour être la technologie de référence de toute entreprise cherchant à tirer pleinement parti de la 5G, de l’IoT et de tout ce qui suivra.

Logo : https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1334383/VoltDB_Logo.jpg

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Rwandan President Removes Justice Minister Amid ‘Hotel Rwanda’ Hero Trial

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has removed the justice minister but made him ambassador to Britain amid international scrutiny over the trial of Paul Rusesabagina, the hotelier credited with saving many lives during the 1994 genocide.

A government statement issued on Tuesday gave no reason for the dismissal of Johnston Busingye, who had served as justice minister and attorney general since 2013.

Busingye was appointed Rwanda’s ambassador to Britain, the statement said.

Kagame did not immediately name a new justice minister. Requests for comment to government spokespeople and the presidency office were not answered.

Rusesabagina was hailed as hero after he used his connections as the manager of a Kigali hotel to save ethnic Tutsis from slaughter during the genocide. He was portrayed in the 2004 Hollywood film “Hotel Rwanda.”

Now he is accused of nine terrorism-related charges, including forming and funding an armed rebel group. Before his arrest, Rusesabagina, who was living in the United States, was a vocal critic of the Kagame government.

Prosecutors have requested a life sentence for Rusesabagina, whose family says he is in poor health and being mistreated in prison. The court is scheduled to issue its verdict on Sept. 20.

In an interview with Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel in February, then Minister Busingye said the government had paid for the flight that brought Rusesabagina to Rwanda last year, which Rusesabagina’s family said resulted in his kidnapping.

Rusesabagina’s trial has drawn attention to Kagame, whom rights groups say has used authoritarian tactics to crush political opposition and extend his rule.

The government’s arrest of Rusesabagina amounted to an enforced disappearance, a serious violation of international law, New York-based Human Rights Watch said at the time.

Kagame became head of state in 2000 after he and his rebel forces halted the genocide in 1994 after 100 days of bloodletting and around 800,000 deaths of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. He won landslide victories in subsequent elections, the most recent in 2017, when he won nearly 99% of the vote. He changed the constitution in 2015, enabling him to rule legally until 2034.

Source: Voice of America

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UN Study: Weather Disasters Increased Fivefold in Last 50 Years

A new report released Wednesday by the United Nations indicates extreme weather events have increased fivefold over the past 50 years, while the number of fatalities related to those events has dropped.

Officials from the U.N.’s weather and climate agency, the World Meteorological Organization, introduced the report during a briefing from the agency’s headquarters in Geneva. The report shows weather-related disasters have occurred on average at a rate of one per day over the past five decades, killing 115 people and causing $202 million in losses daily.

Mami Mizutori, U.N. special representative for disaster risk reduction, told reporters she found the report “quite alarming.” She noted that this past July was the hottest July on record, marked by heat waves and floods around the world. The study shows that more people are suffering due to this increased frequency and intensity of weather events.

Mizutori said 31 million people were displaced by natural disasters last year, almost surpassing the number displaced by conflicts. She said on average, 26 million people per year are pushed into poverty by extreme weather events. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic is compounding the problem.

The U.N. disaster risk specialist said, “We live in this, what we call, the multihazard world, and it demonstrates that we really need to invest more in disaster risk reduction and prevention.”

WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said the good news in the report is that during that same period, fatalities related to these disasters dropped by nearly three times, due to early warning systems and improved disaster management.

But the study also shows that more than 91% of the deaths that do occur happen in developing or low-income countries, as many do not have the same warning and management systems in place.

The WMO officials said the economic losses associated with these disasters will worsen without serious climate change mitigation. Taalas said if the right measures are put in place, the trend could be stopped in the next 40 years. WMO called on the G-20 group of world economic powers to keep their promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Source: Voice of America

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Empowering the Youth Through Vocational Schools

Sawa Center for Vocational Train¬ing (SCVT) has been training stu¬dents in various technical fields for the last 14 years. At the beginning, the center trained students for one year at a certificate level in the fields of electricity, drafting, surveying and building. The curriculum has been reviewed and improved over the last eight years. The number of fields of specialization has increased and the one-year certificate program has been upgraded to a two-year cer¬tificate program with a focus on giv¬ing students hands-on experience in their fields of specialization.

Considering the importance of the training programs in enhancing the human resources base of the nation and the relevance of the training pro¬grams to the country’s development plans, the Government has invested over 16 million USD for the pur¬chase of modern training equipment.

The students at SCVT have been encouraged to work in innovative works and their ingenuity could be seen at the exhibitions that are an¬nually staged as part of their senior technical work presentations in their respective fields.

Some students feel they should have been given diploma instead of certificate as they have studied for two years. But Mr. Negasi Kifle, director of Building Construction Technology 01, is of the opinion that the courses being offered at the center strictly follow standards set for practical and science courses. He said that most of the time, a diploma course in the science stream takes three years to complete whereas the courses provided at SCVT cover 60 credit hours that should be covered in four semesters in a period of two years and, therefore, the award of certificate is justified.

Mr. Negasi further said that for many students the certificate level courses have been a short path for what would have been achieved in 20 years. The students have been very keen to attend the courses and they have always been ready to achieve more in their future career. There would be an incentive for those who are passionate to continue their studies at a diploma level be¬cause they have already covered the needed credit hours.

The outbreak of Covid-19 might have been a setback for the teaching and learning process all over the na¬tion as schools were closed down for a year. But, Mr. Negasi said, the fact that SCVT is a boarding schools and there was no contact with other areas of the country that were under par¬tial lockdown, the training at SCVT was given without any interruption, a rare advantage for the students to complete their studies in the set out time frame.

SCVT gives financial and material support to students in need, and the Ministry of Education has been pro¬viding educational materials at the needed time.

To give students extensive ac¬cess to reading materials, the center opened a digital library. The well-trained teachers were also working hard to enable students have good knowledge in the subject matter.

According to teachers and the ad¬ministration of SCVT, the overall competence of the students at the center is remarkable. All the stu¬dents meet the set standards and most of them have graduated with good results while some demonstrate ex¬ceptional excellence. What is more, the participation of female students at SCVT has been increasing every year. They have increasingly been becoming more competitive with their male counterparts and they ex¬cel in some fields. Despite their few number compared to the number of male students, the female students have been resolute in their studies which is obvious in the number of females who graduate with distinc¬tion. At the 12th commencement, for instance, out of the nine students that scored full marks, five are females.

Elim Ghirmai and Saron Mihrete¬ab, graduates at the 12th commence¬ment, scored four marks in four se¬mesters. Saron studied electronics and graduated with very great dis¬tinction. She said that her father is a technician and what she learned from him inspired her to study electronics. Elim, on her part, said that her father is an engineer and she decided to study surveying due to her father’s influence. The two outstanding stu¬dents said the center enabled them to become versatile and created ample opportunities for social interactions that led to strong relationships.

Upon graduation students have been assigned to work in the de¬velopment of infrastructure such as the construction of dams and roads, electricity, agriculture, maintenance of electronic devices, refrigera¬tors and air conditioners, plumbing, auto mechanics, computer mainte¬nance and networking, drafting and surveying. Although graduates of SCVT have been leaving their fin¬ger prints on development projects across the country, some have not been working in their fields of spe¬cialization. Mr. Negasi said that the huge expenses being made to equip the students with the needed knowl¬edge would only be productive when the graduates are assigned to work in fields of their competence and the center is working hard for a better result.

The training center has been mak¬ing remarkable progress and what the students like most about the cen¬ter is the comprehensive and special courses that have transformed their lives. The number of workshops at the training center have increased over the years, from five to 23, to accommodate more trainees and to provide trainees with spacious room for practice. Representative students from the six regions of the country annually visit the center to witness the huge investments made in expanding the workshops and enabling students to acquire technical skills in a variety of fields. More and more students have now been showing interest to join the center and benefit from its life changing experience. Mr. Negasi said that the doors of the center are always open for interested students.

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

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Tanzania Court Dismisses Objections to Opposition Leader’s Trial

The terrorism case against the leader of Tanzania’s main opposition party can go ahead as planned, a high court judge in Dar es Salaam said Wednesday, dismissing objections by his party.

Chadema party chairman Freeman Mbowe and his supporters have described the charges as a politically-motivated effort to crush dissent, and accused police of torturing him in custody.

His lawyers had argued that the high court’s Corruption and Economic Crimes Division where he appeared had no powers to hear the case, which was previously being handled by a magistrate’s court.

But on Wednesday judge Elinaza Luvanda said that “this court has the jurisdiction to hear terrorism cases and therefore I don’t agree with the objection made by defendants.”

The hearing took place under tight security, with some representatives from foreign embassies and Chadema’s senior leaders in attendance, but many journalists were banned from entering the courtroom by police.

Mbowe has been behind bars since July 21 when he was arrested along with a number of other senior Chadema officials in a night-time police raid hours before they were to hold a public forum to demand constitutional reform.

The 59-year-old has been charged with terrorism financing and conspiracy in a case that has sparked concerns about democracy and the rule of law under President Samia Suluhu Hassan.

On Monday, Mbowe had appeared in court to pursue a case against top legal officials, claiming his constitutional rights had been violated during his arrest and when he was charged.

His defense team says he was held without charge for five days and then charged without his lawyer being present.

The opposition has denounced the arrests as a throwback to the oppressive rule of Tanzania’s late leader John Magufuli who died suddenly in March.

There had been hope Hassan would bring about a new era of democracy after the increasingly autocratic rule of Magufuli, nicknamed the “Bulldozer” for his uncompromising style.

But Chadema leaders say the arrests reflect a deepening slide into “dictatorship.”

Prosecutors say the allegations against Mbowe do not relate to the constitutional reform conference Chadema had planned to hold in the port city of Mwanza in July, but to alleged offences last year in another part of Tanzania.

Chadema has said prosecutors accuse Mbowe of conspiring to attack a public official, and of giving 600,000 Tanzanian shillings ($260/220 euros) towards blowing up petrol stations and public gatherings and cutting down trees to block roads.

Source: Voice of America

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Our Freedom Through the Remarkable Shot at Mountain Adal

Freedom is the most precious and valuable thing that every human be¬ing wants and deserves to enjoy. Er¬itrea made a lot of sacrifice to gain its freedom.

September 1 marks the transfor¬mation of the political struggle to an armed struggle for Eritrea’s inde¬pendence. Eritreans fought together to show their resistance against the Ethiopian annexation of Eritrea. Be¬fore the armed struggle started, they had fought legally and peacefully from the 1940’s up to 1961.

When many African countries that had been under European co¬lonial rule became independent in the 1950’s and 1960’s, the Eritrean people were denied the same right and were thrown under federation with Ethiopia following the United Nations resolution on December 2, 1950. Appointed by the United Na¬tions, the British Administration in Eritrea had the duty to preserve the Eritrean assets, but instead of fulfill¬ing their duty, they dismantled and looted major Eritrean factories and infrastructure that had been built during the Italian colonization. By deliberately ruining Eritrea’s econo¬my to make the argument that Eritrea could not stand on its own, they con¬spired to lay the ground for Eritrea’s federation with Ethiopia. And the federation had barely lasted ten years when it ended with the annexation of Eritrea by Ethiopia.

The independence of Eritrea was not seen by the West as one that could serve the interests of the inter¬national community, especially that of the USA. This was stated in black and white by the US Secretary of State at that time, John Foster Dulles. He said: “From the point of view of justice, the opinions of the Eritrean people must receive consideration. Nevertheless, the strategic inter¬est of the US in the Red Sea basin and considerations of security and world peace make it necessary that the country has to be linked with our ally, Ethiopia.”

On September 1, 1961, Hamid Idris Awate and his followers began the armed struggle at the battle of Adal against the occupying Ethio¬pian army and police. This day is seen as a turning point in the Eritrean history as it marks the beginning of the 30 years of armed struggle for independence.

Hamid Idris Awate, who was for¬merly a conscripted Italian soldier, was resisting the unfair administra¬tion of the British rule during the 1940’s and was protecting his people against aggressors from Ethiopia and Sudan. The British Administration pleaded with Hamid to hand over his rifle and start living in his village. As a result, in 1951, he surrendered his rifle and became an ordinary farmer. Then from 1956 onwards the name of Hamid started to become popu¬lar again when he raised the issue of armed struggle with the idea of national unity. Meanwhile, the Er¬itrean police commissioner at that time, Mr. Tedla Ukbit, became sus¬picious of Hamid’s movements and instructed the local police to put him in custody. After some days Hamid and his followers fled and went to Adal where they had their very first battle against the enemy.

Hamid Idris Awate was injured at a battle and passed away on 28 May, 1962. Hamid is the founding father of the Eritrean armed struggle for liberation. A statue has been built to honor his dedication and sacrifice.

The armed struggle that was initi¬ated on September 1 took thirty long years of bitter and bloody struggle before it ended with the utter de¬feat of the Derg regime of Ethiopia. Eritrea’s independence was no gift from anyone but the result of Eritre¬ans’ sacrifice, a war fought against all odds. Young Eritrean men and women from all over the country fought to give Eritrean independence to the Eritrean people as the most precious gift. They presented it upon the unshakeable mind, heart and soul of the Eritrean people. That is why independence has a unique and deep meaning for Eritreans.

After independence, Eritrea has continued to encounter challenges. It fought three rounds of battles against the TPLF regime in Ethiopia and withstood illegal sanctions. Eritrea has proved time and again that no matter how long it takes it eventually triumphs over the forces of evil. As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the armed struggle, we should remember to always be vigilant and work without reserva¬tion for the development of our na¬tion and betterment of our people’s lives.

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

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Four Killed, Dozens Kidnapped in Eastern Congo Ambush

Four civilians were killed and dozens were taken hostage Wednesday in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo when suspected Islamist militants ambushed a convoy and set fire to the vehicles, the government said.

Congo’s army has freed more than 50 of the hostages in Ituri province and operations are underway to recover the remaining captives from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan Islamist group, the communications ministry said on Twitter.

The ministry did not say how many people were still being held hostage. A local lawmaker said earlier that about 80 people were believed to be missing after the attack on a convoy of about 100 vehicles that was traveling with army protection on the road between the cities of Beni and Butembo.

Attacks by the armed groups operating in eastern Congo’s borderlands with Rwanda and Uganda have continued unabated despite the government’s imposition of martial law in Ituri and North Kivu province at the beginning of May.

The installation of army generals as provincial governors was meant to quell a surge in violence that the military largely attributes to the ADF.

But the number of civilians killed in such attacks has increased, according to the Kivu Security Tracker. Survivors of Wednesday’s attack recalled a hail of gunfire as the convoy passed near the village of Ofaye.

“Bullets started flying in every direction,” one of the survivors, Malanda Dague, told Reuters. “Some vehicles were hit and then burned.”

Jean-Paul Ngahangondi, a member of parliament in North Kivu province, where the convoy started, criticized what he said was the army’s slow response, a frequent complaint of local people.

“The army just waits for the rebels to kill the population and only then pursues them without any positive results,” he said.

Eastern Congo has been plagued by violence since regional wars around the turn of the century. Islamic State has claimed dozens of killings blamed on the ADF, although U.N. experts say they have not found conclusive evidence that IS has control over ADF operations.

Source: Voice of America