- Russian activist killed on front line in Ukraine
- Openda strike briefly sends Leipzig top of Bundesliga
- Goal-shy Man Utd have to 'step up', says Ten Hag
- India bowl out Bangladesh for 127 in T20 opener
- Madueke rescues Chelsea in draw with 10-man Forest
- Beckett's belief rewarded as Bluestocking storms to Arc glory
- Trump on the stump, Harris hits airwaves in razor-edge US election
- Flash flooding kills three in northern Thailand
- Kaur leads India to victory over Pakistan in Women's T20 World Cup
- Juventus held by Cagliari after late penalty drama
- In France's Marseille, teen 'stabbed 50 times' then burned alive
- Ruthless Gauff beats Muchova in straight sets to win China Open
- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
- Israel pounds Lebanon ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
- Toddler among 4 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
- Mozambique vote: no suspense but some disillusion
- Austrian rapper channels anti-racist rage in Romani hip-hop songs
- Ohtani magic powers Dodgers over Padres in MLB playoff thriller
- Five of the best: Pakistan-England Test thrillers
- Man sets arm on fire as marches across US mark Gaza war anniversary
- Vietnam's young coffee entrepreneurs brew up a revolution
- Trump rallies at site of failed assassination: 'Never quit'
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- Is music finally reckoning with #MeToo?
- Fans hail Trump's 'guts' as he returns to site of rally shooting
- Lebanon state media says 'very violent' Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Guardians maul Tigers, miracle Mets rally in MLB series openers
- Lebanon state media says Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Miami on track for MLS record points after win in Toronto
- Madrid beat Villarreal but Carvajal suffers knee injury
- Madrid beat Villarreal to move level with Liga leaders Barcelona
- Monaco take top spot in Ligue 1 with win at Rennes
- French rugby player on rape charge whistled but 'serene' on return
- Madrid beat Villarreal to level Liga leaders Barca
- Thuram treble fires Inter past Torino and up to second
- 'Fight': defiant Trump jets in to site of rally shooting
- Toddler among 3 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Mexico City's new mayor sworn in with pledges on water, housing
- Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Guardians maul Tigers in MLB playoff series opener
Telenor Myanmar sale challenged over data leak fears
The proposed sale of Norwegian telecoms giant Telenor's Myanmar subsidiary could put sensitive personal data of millions of customers into the hands of the junta, according to a complaint filed on Tuesday.
Myanmar has been in chaos since a coup last year sparked huge protests and a bloody military crackdown on dissent.
Telenor announced in July that it planned to sell its subsidiary Telenor Myanmar and later cited junta demands that it install monitoring equipment on the network as a reason for leaving the country.
A proposed sale to Lebanese financial company M1 Group and a consortium headed by a figure close to the ruling junta has been approved by the military, according to local media reports.
But a Myanmar citizen has filed a complaint with Norway's Data Protection Authority, arguing the sale would result in a "dangerous transfer of control over sensitive user data" of more than 18 million Telenor customers.
Any sale would breach EU privacy rules (GDPR), the complaint argues, asking the body to investigate and ensure any sale would not infringe the data rights of those affected.
The complaint claims customers' names, addresses, phone numbers, national registration card details, messages and call histories are held by Telenor.
Activist groups say any new owner could comply with future requests from the junta to provide cellphone data.
In Oslo, the parent company Telenor, which is majority-owned by the Norwegian state, argued that the Burmese authorities require operators to keep this data "for several years" and that deleting it would be "in breach of the telecoms licence, which is a prerequisite to run telecoms operations in the country".
"Violating or not complying with local regulations under the existing legal framework would have severe and completely unacceptable consequences for our employees," Gry Rohde Nordhus, Head of Telenor communications, told AFP.
Nordhus added that since Telenor did not "exert any control on the handling of customer data by Telenor Myanmar," GDPR did not apply to customer data there.
The Norwegian Data Protection Authority also confirmed it had received the complaint.
"We examine all complaints that we receive as a general rule, and will therefore open a case based on the information we have received," spokeswoman Guro Skaltveit wrote in an email to AFP.
Telenor -- part-owned by the Norwegian government -- has had a commercial presence in Myanmar since 2014.
In July, 474 civil society groups in the country called Telenor's decision to pull out irresponsible, saying it had not sufficiently considered the impact of the move on human rights.
More than 1,500 people have been killed by security forces and over 11,000 arrested since the coup, according to a local monitoring group.
P.M.Smith--AMWN