Facebook:social network prepares to unleash army of robotic helpers which could one day replace human customer services staff.

Automated "customer contact" centres and robotic cold callers are among the grimmer inventions of recent years.

But if you think squabbling with a disembodied voice is irritating, just wait until you end up screaming at your computer screen whilst trying to order a pizza or pay a bill.
Facebook is rumoured to be on the verge of unveiling a range of new "business bots" which will let firms automatically communicate with customers using Messenger .


The social network is expected to show off a range of bots at the f8 conference, a tech conference which starts in San Francisco today.

This could mean that Facebook users are able to buy stuff without ever leaving the social network, potentially giving Mark Zuckerberg's empire a stake in more or less every single interaction its customers perform online.

A selfie pose killed her (images).

A teenage girl has died after she was hit by a train as she posed for a selfie just inches from a railway track. Horror photos show the unnamed 19-year-old just seconds before the train hit her after ignoring warnings from other tourists to move back. This happened in the city of Foshan, South China’s Guangdong Province last Saturday.

The girl was reportedly attracted to a particular stretch of rail by a sea of roses growing nearby, which also attracted hundreds of others but she went too far by straying too close to the railway tracks until she was finally struck by a freight train and paramedics on arrival pronounced her dead.

Officials have banned people from taking photographs in that railway area.

 

While selfies may never be listed as an official cause of death, there have been an increasing number of selfie-related deaths in China in recent years, including those of victims who tried to take selfies while on top dangerous cliffs and waterfalls.

Source: South China Morning Post‎/MirrorUK

UEMOA, CEMAC franc CFA soon interchangeable- Official

The interchangeability of the CFA franc between Central Africa’s Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) will “soon” be effective, the Governor of the Bank of Central Africa States (BEAC), told the Cameroonian daily “Mutations”’ published on Monday.

In his interview with the privately-owned daily, Lucas Abaga Nchama declined to give a date for the entry into force of this convergence measurement, indicating however that the two regional bodies would consolidate the integration.

I would like to reassure the public that we are working to take the appropriate measures to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism, he said.

The negotiations on the entry into force of the CFA franc interchangeability, which have been frozen for two decades, resumed in 2012, with a planned set of technical meetings considered by experts as dynamic.
Through a secured framework for exchanges, the planned discussions will focus on ways to restore the convertibility of bank notes between CEMAC and UEMOA.

It could be recalled that the CFA Currency Area groups Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Congo, Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Chad, Togo and the Central African Republic (CAR).

Could 3000 Cameroonians be taking salaries from the government when they are not officially employed?

Chancel Ako Takem, Permanent Secretary of Administrative Reforms at the Ministry of Public Service and Administrative Reforms, talks on the ongoing revamp of the State pay roll.
Is April 29 deadline not too short for over 3000 civil servants to identify themselves?

Chancel Ako Takem

The time is more than enough. The list for contract workers was published in August last year while that for civil servants was published in November last year. Both groups were given one week to present themselves with justification papers at their various ministries. The Minister of Public Service and Administrative Reforms later gave instructions that we should be lenient and we were lenient enough to extend the deadline to over four months to enable workers to clarify their situation. At this point, we are rounding up the process.

The current deadline given by the minister is the last opportunity to all whose salary has been suspended to show up and clarify their situation.  After April 29, 2016, we are going to move to the next stage which is engaging a disciplinary procedure at the level of the Permanent Disciplinary Board of the Public Service. This disciplinary procedure might lead to their dismissal from the Public Service.  

Since the publication of the list of doubtful civil servants, how many people have brought identification papers to clarify their situation?

When the first list of 10,000 contract workers was published, about 7000 contract workers were able to clarify their situation at their various ministries. The salary of such workers has not been suspended. We had a leftover of 3000 contract workers who did not present clarification documents and we do not even know where they are working. No ministry has recognised these 3000 workers. Concerning civil servants, a list of 14,000 doubtful civil servants was published and about 8,000 civil servants where able to clarify their situation at their various ministries. The files of these civil servants were forwarded to my department.

About 3800 civil servants have not clarified their situation. It is the salary of those who did not clarify their situation either as contract or civil servants that has been suspended and there are those concerned with the 29 April deadline. Since the salaries of over 3000 civil servants was suspended, only the Ministry of Public Contracts have written to my department with the files of two civil servants whose salaries have been suspended. Apart from this, we have not yet received any correspondence from any other ministry. I believe that maybe before 29 April deadline, we are going to receive more justification papers.

For those who have brought clarification documents, when will their salaries be reinstated?
These documents have to be examined. It is not just a matter of bringing justification papers and salaries being reinstated. We will examine the files to know exactly where these workers have been since the list was published last year. We need to know why they are showing up only now. It is only when we have clarified many things that we will start thinking of reinstating their salaries. There is no time range given to do this and we are not in any rush.

The government has instructed us to have a mastery of the number of State workers and the equivalent payroll. We have to know if such people are effectively working and the documents attached to their files are authentic. We are informed that some people have succeeded to have fraudulent attestations of effective presence at work and that there are others who have taken flights to come and make themselves available and later go back. We are not in a hurry to examine the files; we are going to take our time.

Will such workers receive arrears of suspended salaries?
If it appears that the clarification documents of such workers are convincing, we are going to write to the Minister of Finance with the names of those concerned. Their salaries’ will be reinserted and arrears paid on all those months the salary was suspended.

When will SIGIPIES II effectively begin? 
Normally, it is supposed to start in July this year. The measure is in line with the transition from the current management of State human resources characterised by the existence of two softwares, notably the Integrated Computerised System of Human Resources, SIGIPES and Antelope. The new system will merge both softwares to bring into force SIGIPIES II. The Prime Minister instructed that only civil servants recognised by their user ministries to be transferred to the new computerised system. We are already at the end of the process which started early last year.

Source: Cameroon Tribune

Jose Mourinho pictured at boxing match.(photo)

Jose Mourinho was at the O2 arena to see British-Nigerian Anthony Joshua (real names Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua) claim the IBF Heavyweight crown from Charles Martin inside two rounds. The Portuguese then surprisingly waited patiently in the queue of well wishers  to congratulate him on becoming the new IBF heavyweight king.

“Jose was watching the build-up and then decided, all of a sudden, he wanted a ticket last-minute,” said Joshua. 

 “They managed to get him a seat and I met him afterwards.

“I’ve met him before and he remembered me. We had a good five-minute chat. I respect him. We were in the changing room and he’s a cool guy. He just congratulated me. There were some good faces there. I saw Jess Ennis, too.”

Boxing Promoter Eddie Hearn was shocked when he saw Mourinho and says his presence shows how big Joshua is becoming.

“We didn’t even know he was coming,” said the Matchroom Sport MD. “He just rocked up at half-six at the Arena and started texting people to get in.

“He then queued up at the changing room to meet him. AJ is a massive star. He is the new figurehead of British boxing.”

Africa: Africans soon to travel freely in any part of the continent without VISAS.

 

The president of the African Union Commission announced on 5 April 2016, the arrival of a general African passport dated for July 2016.

This initiative will mark the imminent start of the free movement of Africans on the continent, followed by the removal of visa. From July, African passports will be established. The first beneficiaries will be the Heads of States of the continent. 

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma announced during the Africa Development Week in Addis Ababa that the introduction of a common passport will be for the month of July this year.

As for the citizens of African countries, no date has been set yet. However, all African nationals will soon have the right to enter and reside in an African country for 30 days without visa. The establishment of an African passport is one of the projects to be implemented in the first 10 years of the Agenda 2063 of the AU.

This project, which was agreed last year, aims at improving intra-African trade and facilitating the movement of goods between Member States. The first copies of African passport will be released in July at a summit in Kigali, Rwanda.

Cameroon: Opposition members rounded up during “Black Friday” rally .

 
Twenty militants of Cameroon People’s Party (CPP) and the Movement for the Revival of Cameroon (MRC), two opposition parties, were arrested early Friday in Yaounde by riot police over accusation of “rebellion” and “incitement to insurrection.”They are accused of wearing t-shirts of Black Friday, a movement that intends to demonstrate against a possible revision of the Constitution and demand access to clean drinking water, health care and an end to power cuts.

The heavily armed police officers, jumped over as they were distributing leaflets to the populations of Biyem-Assi, a popular area of the city, calling on the citizens to mobilize against the confiscation of the power by the ruling majority and lack of basic social services.

After their arrest, the activists were taken to the Regional Directorate of the Judicial Police, where two-day custody was notified to them.

Elements of the Movement Stand Up 4 Cameroon these activists come from a coalition of opposition parties who, decided to dressed in black every Friday to show discontent and raise people’s awareness.

Noting the numerous breaches of freedom of meetings and public events, as well as “completely illegal actions” of prefectural authorities prohibiting almost systematically rallies, the opposition activists warned against the tensions likely to cause the country’s implosion.

Cameroon:The President wants government members on social media

 The members of the Cameroonian government have been encouraged to use social networks to communicate on the activities of their ministerial departments. This was the instruction recently given by the
Cameroonian Head of State, Paul Biya, we learned from official sources.

This presidential directive comes in a situation characterised by the the publication, by several members of the Cameroonian government, of press communiqués announcing that they are not the owners of any facebook account, nor are they on any other social networks. These ministers thus wanted to denounce the fraudsters using the accounts to commit fraud.

The imposed presence on social networks for members of the Cameroonian government should contribute to boost government communication. Indeed, though they have dedicated websites, several ministries are still struggling to keep them updated.