Microsoft is to open 4 data storage centers in France to meet strong customer demand for cloud computing, the head of the software giant's French operations told the Agence France-Presse on Tuesday, January 23.

The Federal Tax Authority (FTA) on Tuesday launched a Tax Registration Number (TRN) verification service on its website, where consumers can check the authenticity of tax invoices and ensure that the merchants and service providers issuing them are registered with the FTA.

The Authority also debuted the VAT Calculator, which allows consumers and service recipients to instantly calculate the Value Added Tax (VAT) due on their purchases of goods or services. This, in turn, makes it possible for the public to remain aware of their rights and ensures full transparency.

Information about mandatory services such as medical check-up and police verification, before applying for an employment visa in the UAE, can now be completed at the touch of a smartphone button.

The UAE Embassy in New Delhi launched a smartphone application on Tuesday aimed at providing consular services and travel advice to Emiratis visiting India as well as Indian nationals residing in or considering moving to the UAE.

The app will instruct users on the documents required for visa application, medical check-up, and police verification processes to be followed before applying for an employment visa in the UAE from India.

Furthermore, applicants can now complete medical check-up and police verification in their home country before arriving in the UAE.

 Ambassador to #India launched a Smartphone app for Indians seeking work visas during a press conference held at the @UAEembassyIndiahttps://t.co/WJmtEabAV4@MOFAUAE @Forsan_UAE pic.twitter.com/L389NBy3NW

UAE's Ambassador to India, Dr Ahmed Albanna, revealed to media persons that the mission will now offer various services electronically, and the new app also conforms to the Digital India Initiative. He was quoted speaking to IANS: "The app is dedicated to providing information and the information actually serves both UAE nationals visiting India and also Indians trying to gather information to visit the UAE and also those going to work in the UAE." The app is available for both Android as well as iOS platforms. Moreover, according to an official Embassy statement, the app is like a map providing information about key destinations and points along with proper guidance to help process and resolve issues. The app also provides address and coordinates to locations of the mission's embassy in New Delhi as well as the Consulate General's address in Kerala and Mumbai.

A report in the Indian daily Hindustan Times revealed that the UAE currently has three visa centres in India - Delhi, Mumbai, and Thiruvananthapuram - and the one in the national capital alone issued about 50,000 work visas last year. A total of 1.6 million Indians visited the UAE last year, while Indian visitors to Dubai alone crossed the 1 million mark during January-September 2017.

For UAE nationals, it provides services such as 'Twajudi', a service aimed at helping any national return in case of emergency, and help in the case of loss of passport, children return document, UAE citizen presence abroad, escort treatment for medical cases, financial matters emergencies, etc. "For Indian nationals, the app provides visa and attestation information to help in bridging the gap information to smoothening the overall process," Albanna said.

More sluggish-than-expected response may lead Apple to discontinue the first-generation iPhone X around mid-2018 as the second-generation model is set for launch later this year, an analyst associated with Taiwanese business group KGI Securities has said.

According to Ming-Chi Kuo, the most famous analyst with KGI Securities when it comes to Apple, the Cupertino-based giant will not sell iPhone X at lower price as it will hurt its other products in the lower-priced premium segment.

Kuo estimated that Apple would ship about 18 million iPhone X units in the January-March quarter in 2018, MacRumors reported late on Monday.

We revise down 1Q18 and 2Q18 shipments of iPhone X to 18 million units and 13 million units, respectively, lower than market consensus of 20-30 million and 15-20 million units," Kuo said.

"We expect iPhone X will go to end of life (EOL) around mid-2018 and that total life cycle shipments will be around 62 million units, lower than our previous forecast of 80 million units," the analyst said.

"iPhone X would hurt product brand value and lineup of 2H18 new models if it continues to sell at a lower price after 2H18 new models launch," Kuo said.

"Additionally, to sell iPhone X at a lower price may have a negative impact on shipments of the new 6.1-inch LCD iPhone in 2H18," the analyst predicted.

Weaker-than-expected demand for iPhone X in China has led market analysts to revise down shipments for the first half of 2018.

According to Kuo, iPhone X is not yet compatible with many popular Chinese apps, leading many customers to see it as offering less usable screen space than 5.5-inch iPhone Plus models.

"This confusion, coupled with the high price of iPhone X, is thought to have undercut replacement demand," the report added.

Kuo, however, said the overall iPhone shipments will maintain year-on-year growth of 0-5 per cent over the first half of 2018.

Facebook's Instagram and the Google+ social network have agreed to join an EU-sponsored group of US internet giants to combat online extremism, EU officials said Friday.EU officials added that the existing members—YouTube, Microsoft, Twitter and Facebook—have made progress toward meeting the code of conduct they signed up to in May 2016, promising to look at suspicious content within 24 hours and remove illegal material.

"Instagram has decided to join forces in the fight against illegal online hate speech and will now also apply the code of conduct," EU Justice and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Vera Jourova told reporters.

"And this morning I also received the message that Google+ is joining," she added.

The EU joined forces with US-based internet firms nearly two years ago amid growing alarm in Europe over the use of social media as a recruiting tool, especially by the Islamic State group.

Jourova said Friday she would continue having the industry regulate itself under the code of conduct after hailing progress among the internet firms to remove threatening material.

The commission said IT firms removed 70 percent of the illegal speech notified to them in the last few months, compared to 59 percent before May 2017, and 28 percent in the months after the code of conduct was launched.

Jourova also said Facebook had hired 3,500 new staff to fight online hate speech on top of the 4,500 existing employees.

She added that IT firms have also strengthened cooperation with civil society organisations, including training, to better detect and report suspected cases of hate speech.

"Having these quite positive results of this third assessment, I will be stronger in promoting my view that we should continue the way of doing this through the code of conduct method," Jourova said before meeting EU ministers of justice next week in Sofia.

The leaders of EU states last year urged internet firms to do their utmost to combat online extremism or face the possibility of legislation if the industry self-regulation fails. The Commission is the executive and regulatory arm of the 28-nation EU.

Aerospace company Rocket Lab said Sunday it had successfully fired a rocket into orbit for the first time from its New Zealand launch base.

"Electron is orbital. Successful payload deployment," the company tweeted.The Electron rocket, named "Still Testing", took off from Mahia, on the east coast of the North Island, at 2.45pm (0145 GMT) on Sunday and reached orbit eight minutes later.

The 17-metre-long (55ft 7in) carbon-fibre rocket is carrying three satellites into space -- one to take images of Earth for United States company Planet Labs, and two to capture weather and ship tracking data for Spire Global.

"Speechless. Just like that, @rocketlab reaches orbit and sets a new bar for launch by reaching orbit on just their 2nd test," satellite-powered data company Spire tweeted.

Rocket Lab conducted its first launch last May when the firm put a rocket into space, but it did not reach orbit.

Although New Zealand-founded, Rocket Lab lists itself as an American company with headquarters at a wholly-owned New Zealand subsidiary.

Backers include US companies Khosla Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Lockheed Martin, Promus Ventures and Data Collective.

The company says its mission is to provide "frequent launch opportunities to low Earth orbit" with a range of rocket systems and technologies "for fast and affordable payload deployment".

Rocket Lab launch services with Electron are reported to cost US$4.9 million per flight.

Jeanette Epps, 46, a former CIA agent turned astronaut, was about to become the first African-American to embark on a mission lasting several months at the International Space Station.

It's still unclear why, but plans for her June liftoff suddenly changed, and another astronaut was chosen in her place, NASA has announced."A number of factors are considered when making flight assignments; these decisions are personnel matters, for which NASA doesn't provide information," US space agency spokeswoman Brandi Dean said in an email to AFP on Friday.

"Epps has returned to the active astronaut corps at Johnson Space Center to assume duties in the astronaut office," Dean added.

"She will be considered for assignment to future missions."

Epps was supposed to blast off aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan in June, to serve as a flight engineer on the ISS as part of Expedition 56, and remaining on board for Expedition 57. Each expedition's tour of duty typically lasts three months.

It would have been the New York native's first trip to space, and the first long-duration stay at the orbiting outpost by an African-American.

Six other African-American astronauts have traveled to the space station, but those were shorter missions during the space shuttle era when the ISS was being assembled.

NASA announced in a statement late Thursday that Serena Aunon-Chancellor, who was initially meant to fly on a later mission, will launch in June instead of Epps.

Aunon-Chancellor "joined the astronaut corps in 2009 and has been at NASA since 2006, when she became a flight surgeon," according to her biography.

"Before being selected as an astronaut, she spent more than nine months in Russia supporting medical operations for space station crew members, including water survival training in the Ukraine, and served as the deputy lead for medical operations for NASA's Orion spacecraft."

Epps earned her doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland in 2000.

"She spent seven years as a CIA technical intelligence officer before being selected as a member of the 2009 astronaut class," her biography says.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is drawing up contingency plans for projects, commercial deals, and staffing that may be adversely affected by Brexit, senior officials said Wednesday.

Programmes throw in flux by Britain's pending departure from the European Union (EU) include the Copernicus satellite constellation to monitor environmental damage, and the Galileo satellite navigation system.

"It is not an easy situation at all, I can tell you. We are going through the options," Josef Aschbacher, director of ESA's Earth observation activities, told journalists in Paris.

"What we have to do as ESA, we have to get ready for all these eventualities."

Britain's EU-linked participation in both programmes will come to an end after Brexit, unless it negotiates a specific deal, the ESA has said. When this would happen, is not clear.

But Britain will likely stay in the ESA, which is autonomous from the European Union.

The UK is one of 20 EU members of the agency, which also includes non-EU countries Norway and Switzerland.

The EU has forked out the bulk of Copernicus' budget of about seven billion euros ($8.5 billion) since 2002, though ESA also contributes.

So far, Europe has launched six satellites for Copernicus, which is designed to monitor Earth's atmosphere, forest cover changes, land and water pollution, and the aftermath of floods and earthquakes.

Copernicus will also improve emergency responses after natural disasters.

UK-based companies hold contracts worth tens of millions of euros from ESA to supply hardware for Copernicus and Galileo—a rival to America's GPS which should be fully operational by 2020.

What next?

According to Philippe Michel of ESA's Galileo programme, Brexit has thrown up "several situations" for which solutions must be found.

These included "the issue of security" in a project that involves the sharing of military and other classified information between countries.

"There are situations of contracts which have already been placed, there are situations of procurements which are ongoing, or future procurements... We are discussing of course all that with the European Commission," Michel added.

ESA director general Jan Woerner insisted the agency was not "directly affected" by the British withdrawal, though "indirectly, we have some things where we are working on."

They include visas, medical insurance, retirement plans and other complications that will arise for British staff in Europe, and continental workers in the UK, once the rules change under Brexit.

"We are also looking in the discussion with the European Union, the European Commission, what happens with industrial activities coming from the UK," said Woerner.

ESA's EU policy office head Jean Bruston has previously said Britain could contribute to Galileo and Copernicus if it negotiated a third-party agreement with the EU, as Norway and Switzerland have done.

On 16 June 2016, the web site TMZ World News (not affiliated with the gossip site TMZ)  published an article reporting that Microsoft and Apple had teamed up to create a new penile implant that notifies spouses via cell phone alerts when their husbands are cheating on them:

Microsoft and Apple have joined forces to cut down on infidelity, save marriages and keep people in relationships accountable for their actions. Together, the technology giants have created a “genital implant” that will alert your cell phone if your partner goes astray. It is called Commit-Tech.

Commit-Tech is a tiny chip that will be implanted at the tip of the penis on the man and the vulva of the woman. These two microchips will be synced together with an app that is installed on your cell phone. If at any time, one of these chips is involved in any sexual activity without the other chip, it will alert the partners cell phone that the other has been cheating.

The above-quoted story was just another clickbait fabrication from TMZ World News, a fake news site:

Tmzworldnews.com is the most notorious satire website in the world with the most shocking Satire News to keep its visitors in a state of disbelief.

A Chinese national was sentenced to five years in prison on economic espionage charges in connection with the theft of proprietary software code from a US technology company, officials said Friday.

A Justice Department statement announced the sentencing Thursday of 32-year-old Xu Jiaqiang, a software developer. The statement did not identify the company but Xu had earlier been identified as a former IBM employee in China.

"As he previously admitted in federal court, Xu Jiaqiang stole high-tech trade secrets from a US employer, intending to benefit the Chinese government," said US Attorney Geoffrey Berman in New York, where the case was heard.

Xu pleaded guilty in 2016 to charges related to the theft. Officials said his scheme was intended to benefit China's National Health and Family Planning Commission and that he also offered to sell the software code to undercover federal agents.

According to court documents, Xu admitted he built a copy of the proprietary software code -- the essential kernel of software programs often held tightly by their owners -- and took it with him when he left the company in 2014.

He met two undercover agents in a hotel in White Plains, New York, in 2015, offering the software which was modified in an effort to conceal its origins.

At the time, Xu told the agents he had also provided the same code to "multiple specific customers," according to the Justice Department statement.

"Xu not only stole high tech trade secrets from his US employer -- a federal crime -- he did so both for his own profit and intending to benefit the Chinese government," Assistant Attorney General Dana Boente said in the statement.

Xu's LinkedIn profile showed he earned a degree in computer science from the University of Delaware and worked for IBM from 2010 to 2014 in Beijing.

Internet titans Google and Tencent on Friday signalled possible future collaboration on developing new technologies as the US and Chinese firms announced a long-term patent-sharing agreement.

The companies gave no details on the scope or nature of the potential cooperation but said in a joint statement that they "are open to deeper collaboration in the future on innovative new technologies".

"By working together on agreements such as this, tech companies can focus on building better products and services for their users," Google's head of patents, Mike Lee, was quoted saying.

Sam Xu, head of intellectual property at Tencent, added that the patent agreement would "advance the collaboration between two leading technology companies".

California-based Google already has similar cross-licensing tie-ups with Samsung, LG and others, which are typical industry arrangements between corporations designed to minimise patent infringements.

But any cooperation between the US search giant and China's all-conquering tech leader -- the world's second- and fifth-largest companies by market value, according to Bloomberg News -- is bound to generate buzz in the IT world.

Google effectively withdrew its search engine from China's heavily controlled internet landscape in 2010 in a row over censorship and cyber-attacks, and many of its services remain blocked.

But there have been hints of a thaw in relations.

Chinese internet regulators recently allowed access to its translation product, and last month Google announced it would open a new artificial intelligence research centre in Beijing.

The agreement with Tencent would apply to a broad range of products, the companies said, without giving any specifics.

Tencent operates China's ubiquitous WeChat messaging platform and is the country's leader in social media and gaming.

It is pushing to build up its entertainment and gaming businesses and has signalled plans to buy studios, expand into content creation and diversify overseas.

Amazon said Thursday it had narrowed to 20 its options for a second headquarters for the sprawling technology and lifestyle company headed by Jeff Bezos, the world's richest individual.

After 238 cities from North America submitted bids, Amazon announced its short list included three in the vicinity of the US capital Washington, and the Canadian city of Toronto."Thank you to all 238 communities that submitted proposals. Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough – all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity," said Holly Sullivan of Amazon Public Policy.

"Through this process we learned about many new communities across North America that we will consider as locations for future infrastructure investment and job creation."

The new list included Washington -- where Bezos has a residence and owns the Washington Post newspaper -- but also the suburban areas of "northern Virginia" and Montgomery County, Maryland.

New York City was also on the list, as was the nearby city of Newark, New Jersey.

Other cities in the northeast included Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Raleigh, North Carolina. From the southeast, Atlanta, Miami and Nashville, Tennessee also made the cut.

Chicago, Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio were the Midwestern cities on the list of candidates. Amazon also selected Denver, Los Angeles and two Texas cities -- Dallas and Austin.

Based in the northwest city of Seattle, Washington, Amazon announced in October it was looking for a second headquarters -- dubbed HQ2 -- which would get an investment of $5 billion and create at least 50,000 jobs.

Cities from around North America, including in Canada and Mexico, offered big tax incentives to win the bidding.

Amazon has expressed a preference for places with more than one million people, a business-friendly environment and urban or suburban locations able to attract and retain strong technical talent.

A final selection is expected sometime in 2018.

"In the coming months, Amazon will work with each of the candidate locations to dive deeper into their proposals, request additional information, and evaluate the feasibility of a future partnership that can accommodate the company's hiring plans as well as benefit its employees and the local community."

Created by Bezos 20 years ago, Amazon has grown from a online bookseller to a multifaceted global retailer, a major player in cloud computing and a major streaming media operator.

It also produces electronic devices which use its artificial intelligence assistant Alexa, and last year acquired the Whole Foods grocery chain. It has 540,000 employees worldwide.

A pair of Australian swimmers on Thursday became the first people to be rescued in the ocean by a drone when the aerial lifesaver dropped a safety device to distressed teens caught in rough seas.

Australia is leading the use of the technology in surf lifesaving, with dozens of drones being trialled on beaches around the country.

In what is believed to be a world-first drone surf rescue, two boys on Thursday got caught in three-metre (10-foot) swells while swimming off Lennox Head in New South Wales, near the border with Queensland.

Beachgoers onshore raised the alarm to the lifeguards who then alerted the drone pilot, and the aerial lifesaver was deployed in moments.

"I was able to launch it, fly it to the location, and drop the pod all in about one to two minutes," lifeguard supervisor Jai Sheridan told the Gold Coast Bulletin.

"On a normal day that would have taken our lifeguards a few minutes longer to reach the members of the public."

Other than a little weary from their experience the pair were reportedly unharmed.

Along with their ability to spot swimmers in trouble and deliver life saving devices faster than traditional lifesaving techniques, like launching surfboards or rubber dinghies, drones are being used in Australia to spot underwater predators like sharks and jellyfish.

Artificial intelligence is being developed using thousands of images captured by a drone camera to build an algorithm that can identify different ocean objects.

The software can differentiate between sea creatures, like sharks which it can recognise with more than 90 percent accuracy, compared to about 16 percent with the naked eye.

Some beaches in Australia have shark nets, but a government report last year called for their phasing out in favour of exploring a range of alternatives, including sonar technology and aerial patrols.

The inquiry found that nets did not guarantee public safety any more than other deterrents but caused significant damage to marine life.

Block graphic aliens dropped down the window panes of a Tokyo skyscraper before being blasted into oblivion by enthusiastic gamers celebrating 40 years of the arcade sensation "Space Invaders".

Four decades after the game took the world by storm, a high-tech exhibition is allowing enthusiasts to save the world from extra-terrestrial invasion in a variety of novel ways.

Part of the installation sees the game projected inside the windows of a skyscraper’s 52nd floor, against the glittering backdrop of Tokyo's night skyline.

Elsewhere at the "Play! Space Invaders!" exhibit, gamers interact more closely with their alien opponents thanks to motion-sensor technology that allows them to stamp or hit the invaders as they approach on the floors or walls.

And for those with a touch of nostalgia, the exhibit also features the traditional game machines that first tempted players in arcades and pizza parlours decades ago.

Father of two, Keiji Ishihara, 50, remembers the frenzy that surrounded the game's original release when he was 10.

"It was a big shock, a fever swept Tokyo, but boys like me didn't have much money to play at the time," he said, smiling as his son blasted away an alien.

"It's beyond sci-fi that we can now access Space Invaders like this!"

When the game was released in 1978, Japan's tech sector was still in its infancy, creator Tomohiro Nishikado said.

"At the time, computers were not that well known in Japan so I learned everything by myself."

"I came up with the characters and the concept. I did everything on my own. Looking back, it is quite impressive... I would say that I am surprised that I managed to achieve this."

Takayuki Taketa, 46, first played the game in a bowling alley and was involved in the development of its revival as an art director.

"It's fantastic to see the game being played again," he said, as electronic bleeps and bloops around him indicated the progress being made in the war against the aliens.

"It makes me so happy to watch people's reactions and see them enjoy it after working on the project."

Seven lawsuits have been launched in Russia and "hundreds" dozens more are in the pipeline against US tech giant Apple which has already admitted to slowing the performance of older iPhone models, a lawyer for some of the plaintiffs said Wednesday.

"We have sent seven lawsuits to Moscow courts—two have been received by the Tverskoy (Moscow district) court and in all we are going to send ten by the end of the week," Maxime Karpov, representing legal services firm NLF Group, told AFP.

Interfax news agency had earlier quoted the court as saying it had received two of the lawsuits by Tuesday evening demanding compensatioo of 800,000 rubles (around $11,500) from Apple's Russian subsidiary.

NLF Group and the Lex Borealis lawyers firm which is also representing the claimants, said in a joint statement they were handling "at least several hundred" claims running into "several tens of millions of rubles".

Karpov told AFP: "If hundreds of complaints have come our way in a few days then I am sure there will be thousands across Russia. We are concentrating on Moscow and region to keep our costs down but there is nothing stopping us ... undertaking similar moves in the provinces."

Apple, facing a US class action and a legal enquiry in France into "planned obsolescence" of its smartphones, with a new model released annually, admitted last month it was deliberately slowing down performance of older models to bolster "durability."

The company apologised and promised to discount replacement batteries for some handsets following uproar from some iPhone users after news of battery problems stoked concerns the company was unfairly nudging consumers to upgrade.

Apple announced Wednesday it would pay about $38 billion in taxes -- likely the largest payment of its kind -- on profits repatriated from overseas as it boosts investments in the United States.

The iPhone maker said in a statement it plans to use some of its foreign cash stockpile, which qualifies for reduced tax rates under a recent bill, to invest in new projects.A source close to the company confirmed that Apple is sharing some of the wealth with employees worldwide through bonuses of $2,500 worth of restricted shares of stock.

"Huge win for American workers and the USA!" President Donald Trump said in a tweet.

Apple, which claims to be the largest US taxpayer, is also one of the biggest beneficiaries of a tax bill passed by Congress in December which lowers the rate of repatriated profits to around 15 percent and cut the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent.

The tech giant had built a stockpile of more than $250 billion in overseas holdings, claiming it was not in the interests of shareholders to repatriate the money with a 35 percent tax rate.

Apple said it will now use a large chunk of the overseas cash for US investments.

It said it expects to spend more than $30 billion in direct capital expenditures in the US over the next five years, creating roughly 20,000 new jobs, and claimed the move would contribute $350 billion in economic activity on home soil.

"Apple is a success story that could only have happened in America, and we are proud to build on our long history of support for the US economy," said Apple chief executive Tim Cook.

"We believe deeply in the power of American ingenuity, and we are focusing our investments in areas where we can have a direct impact on job creation and job preparedness. We have a deep sense of responsibility to give back to our country and the people who help make our success possible."

- Second campus -

Apple plans to spend more than $10 billion on US data centers, which play an increasingly important role as the California-based iPhone maker focuses on increasing revenue from services and content based in the internet "cloud."

The company also said it will establish a second Apple campus, at a location to be disclosed later this year, that will initially house technical support for customers.

As is the case with Apple's other US facilities, the new campus will be entirely powered by renewable energy, the company said.

Apple, which employes 84,000 people in the US, has already spent billions of dollars on a new headquarters in its home city of Cupertino in Silicon Valley.

Apple will also boost the size of its Advanced Manufacturing Fund fivefold, to $5 billion, with the money earmarked to back expansion projects of suppliers in the US.

Apple and Trump have disagreed over a number of issues, but the president on Wednesday praised the company's move to invest in high-tech manufacturing in the United States.

"I promised that my policies would allow companies like Apple to bring massive amounts of money back to the United States. Great to see Apple follow through as a result of TAX CUTS," Trump said in his tweet.

Tax reform recently passed by the US Congress has been touted by Trump as a way to stimulate investment and hiring, despite criticism that it mostly benefits corporations and the wealthy.

- Record-high -

Apple shares closed the official Nasdaq trading day at a record high of $179.10.

Late last year leaked financial documents known as the Paradise Papers revealed that Apple shifted much of its offshore wealth from Ireland to a tax haven in the British Isles.

After the US technology colossus stated publicly in 2013 that it was paying its proper share of taxes, it moved the bulk of its untaxed overseas cash to Jersey, a British dependency in the Channel Islands, various media organizations reported, based on the once-secret cache of documents.

China is preparing for a new crackdown on cryptocurrency, planning to stamp out remaining trading in the country, according to state media.

China will gradually clean up over-the-counter trading platforms, peer-to-peer networks where large exchanges occur and firms registered in the country which allow Chinese to trade overseas, the state-run Securities Journal said Tuesday.

The publication cited an anonymous source close to regulators tackling online finance risks.

The new plan follows China's crackdown on cryptocurrency trading last year, which saw Beijing shut down bitcoin exchanges and ban all initial coin offerings.

But alternative channels for trading cryptocurrencies have popped up, including on social networks like WeChat, QQ and Telegram.

Those online groups facilitating large-scale peer-to-peer trade appear likely to suffer greater scrutiny in the coming months.

The international value of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has plunged in recent days amid fears of a crackdown in Asia and concerns that many currencies' rapid rise in value last year could reflect an inflating bubble.

At one point on Wednesday, the price of bitcoin on some exchanges had tumbled more than 20 percent, falling below the $10,000 mark that the currency broke through in November of last year.

The market movements come just one month after the most valuable cryptocurrency bitcoin broke through the $20,000 mark in December.

The debate on using technology to help football referees took a twist on Thursday as the French league suspended its use of goal-line reviews following some "serious dysfunctions".

The goal-line technology (GLT) system, provided by German company GoalControl, was "suspended immediately" by French football authorities after incidents in League Cup games on Wednesday between Amiens and Paris Saint-Germain and Angers and Montpellier.

In Amiens, the problem centred around PSG's second goal in a 2-0 victory. Adrien Rabiot's flicked header hit the post and bounced over the line before goalkeeper Jean-Christophe Bouet pulled the ball back. However "the GLT did not make the referee's watch vibrate", Didier Quillot, the director general of the French league said in a conference call on Thursday.

In the second incident, which involved Montpellier defender Daniel Congre, the problem was the reverse. The technology "made the referee's watch vibrate in error even though the ball taken by Daniel Congre passed far from the goal line".

"These two anomalies are unacceptable," Quillot said.

Unlike the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), which is being tried this season in the Bundesliga and Serie A and has been used for the first time in England in cup games in recent weeks, and involves an extra official watching replays, GLT is supposed to respond automatically when the ball crosses the goal line between the posts.

In October, Suzana Castaignede, a former GoalControl employee, told French media that the system did not always function automatically and that sometimes human operators had to intervene and make the referee's watch vibrate after the ball had crossed the line.

On Thursday, the French league signalled it might cancel the contract with GoalControl which is due to run until 2019 and turn instead to its costlier British competitor Hawk-Eye which supplies Serie A, the Premier League and the Bundesliga.

"The technology has to work," said Quillot. "That's not the case with the first-generation that is being delivered by GoalControl."

Perhaps France has reasons to look kindly on GoalControl. The company provided the GLT which was used at the World Cup in Brazil in 2014. It awarded one goal: scored by France against Honduras.

- Ferocious debate -

These French hiccups come as the debate over technological assistance for referees, whether it is GLT or VAR, is being ferociously debated.

For the coming World Cup in Russia, FIFA will again rely on GLT but has not yet decided whether to use VAR, though the governing body of world football has indicated that it would like to in four cases: goals, penalties, straight red cards and mistaken identity.

The experiments with VAR in Germany and Italy are meeting with resistance.

In Italy, Lazio fans launched a legal action on December 20 against the referee and video assistant who they say are to blame for two errors that caused their club to lose 3-1 at home to Torino nine days earlier.

In Germany, the Bundesliga boasted that in the first half of the season VAR helped prevent 37 potential result-changing wrong decisions. Yet in November, ex-referee Hellmut Krug, head of the Bundesliga's VAR centre in Cologne, was replaced amid accusations that he influenced decisions to favour Schalke, the club he supports.

This week, in a survey published in Kicker magazine, 47 per cent of German professional players said they wanted VAR done away with while only 42 per cent wanted to keep it (the other 11 per cent had no opinion).

In November, Germany internationals Sandro Wagner and Sami Khedira agreed they liked the theory of VAR but not the implementation.

"We have to wait two minutes to get a decision and despite the video, too many mistakes are still being made," Wagner said.

Khedira made a point that was echoed by Rabiot after his goal on Wednesday was not immediately given.

"The players do not know anymore whether or not to celebrate after a goal," Khedira said. "A lot of emotion and passion has been lost."

In England, VAR made its debut on Monday as Brighton beat Crystal Palace in the FA Cup with an 87th-minute goal by Glenn Murray. At the final whistle, Palace players were still complaining to referee Andre Marriner that the goal should have been disallowed either by him or by video assistant Neil Swarbrick.

"The people close to it seemed to be incensed, and from our angle it looks as if he's guided the ball in with his arm," Palace manager Roy Hodgson said before adding that the replays had changed his mind.

"When you watch it lots of times like they've been able to do, from different angles, it would have been very harsh" to disallow it.

"It was a genuine goal."