Chinese shoppers adopt facial payments in cashless drive
Beijing: No cash, no cards, no wallet, and no smartphones: China’s shoppers are increasingly purchasing goods with just a turn of their heads as the country embraces facial payment technology. China’s mobile payment infrastructure is one of the most advanced in the world, but the new systems — which require only face recognition — being rolled out nationwide could make even QR codes seem old-fashioned. Customers simply make a purchase by posing in front of point-of-sale (POS) machines equipped with cameras, after linking an image of their face to a digital payment system or bank account. “I don’t even have to bring a mobile phone with me, I can go out and do shopping without taking anything,” says Bo Hu, chief information officer of Wedome bakery, which uses facial payment machines across hundreds of stores. The software is already widely used, often to monitor citizens – it has been credited with nabbing jaywalkers and catching criminals. But authorities have come under fire for using it to crack down and monitor dissent, particularly in China’s region of Xinjiang. (PTI)
UK nets largest ever heroin haul worth $145 million
London: An international operation has netted the largest ever heroin seizure in Britain, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said on Wednesday, with nearly 1.3 tonnes recovered from a container ship. Authorities raided the MV Gibraltar after it docked at the southern England port of Felixstowe on August 30, the NCA said. British police had found out that the heroin, with a street value of around $145 million (133 million euros) would be on the vessel when it docked en route to Antwerp. “The smugglers had hidden the drugs within a coverload of towels, stitching the 1kg blocks of heroin inside some of the towels,” said Jenny Sharp, Border Force Assistant Director at Felixstowe. “This is a record heroin seizure in the UK and one of the largest ever in Europe,” said the NCA’s Matt Horne. “The size of this and other recent shipments demonstrate the scale of the threat we face.” (AFP)