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NAIROBI: Burundi's president, Pierre Nkurunziza, has introduced strict controls over the country's renowned drumming rituals, banning female drummers and limiting the sacred tradition to official events. "It is strictly forbidden for females to beat drums. They can however carry out female folk dances accompanying the drums," read a decree seen by a French wire service Thursday, that was signed late last month. All groups seeking to perform "cultural shows" must from now on register with the ministry of culture and are…

YEKATERINBURG: A Russian court on Thursday convicted a video blogger of inciting hatred against believers by posting videos online showing him chasing Pokemons in a church, giving him a suspended sentence. Ruslan Sokolovsky, a militant atheist who posted the videos on his YouTube channel, was detained in August 2016 and spent nine months in jail and under house arrest. His case, heard in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, highlighted the role of the powerful Orthodox Church and sparked comparisons with the scandalous case…

PARIS: The more toddlers play with touchscreen devices the less they sleep, according to a study released Thursday that suggests the findings could be cause for concern. For every additional hour using a touchscreen phone or tablet during the day, children aged six months to three years slept nearly 16 minutes less in each 24 hour period, researchers reported in the journal Scientific Reports. But the study could not determine if the extra screen time was responsible for tiny tots sleeping less, or if the loss of shuteye…

KARACHI: Protests erupted against ban on women cricket at University of Karachi, with several students slamming a student wing of a religious group for its extremism against women within the campus, ARY News reported.